Ron Padgett as a long forgotten 1950's Dessert

it was kind of scary
i was 63
and getting new warts
a lot of them
and i needed to know my options
so i placed myself in a communicating vessel
a hundred thousand gourds
out floating in the ocean
barring the path to the port
at the arrival
of the gigantic severed hand
whose every crenellation
housed a knot of self-absorbed
rainbow caterpillars
and whose heads
appeared as hard glossy horned seeds
ready to pluck the ripe lute of the wind
and earth
our salad
in a bowl lined with precious warts