Garden-throat’s Tale

He dreamt first he was met
on a snow-blown block at night
by a slasher who scalpelled a trough
from his chin to the tip of his sternum
and pulled his esophagus out.
He lay, breathing more openly in
the wintry air until a nurse
in burgundy found him and
fit him with a length of green
garden hose, and stapled him shut.
Next he dreamt the slasher had
been the one to fit him
with the garden pipe, whispering
his benedictions of growth & growing,
and rechristening him Garden-throat.
He received the blade, its handle riveted
in steel. It was called Throater, and he
carried it on with him on his travels.
That is Garden-throat’s story.