Thought Inventory with Rorschach and Caesura

The first of the blots       two piglets kissing a bell.Second: a bearcub         in love with his own image.Blood rising like             clouds of troubling ideas—a pulse keeping                       count on my eardrum.Then, two, always                     two, women tied togetherbreathing with the same lungs, cut at each of their waiststo mimic the Black Dahlia. Brains upside down, stemsreaching out                   as countries in a cold war,unspoiled islands full       of smaller egrets. Four cards in,penguins, of course, a cobra,           a skull in the style of O'Keeffe,half cleft-mind, half vagina. Parts sharp-toothed serpent & delicate orchid.Logic versus imagination.                 The watercolors have started to wringaway again. By five, the obvious                   trick—a bat or a monarch?Some poisonous liar or           what consumes poison wholly itself.And six is sickening.             A housecat as a skin rug?Two sassy rabbits mating or           giving birth. Both certain she knowsthe way. Finally, a dream of heaven:       sherbet-ladder nirvanafor nutria, foxes, catamounts.                   Fire to ice. Hellraiserwith antlers and smile.                   Eyeless pit viper with tonguethat sees and catches scent. The last frame is balance, I expect. Every colorand organ, the spine, nothing, pieces of paper and paint. Dye and water.