Where Bigfoot Slept

They made him wear his apesuit
One last time before his exit
Behind the pine door and into the forest
Or some kind of world which left him
Mysterious, anxious, feared, and incompetent
He was not a real ape but copying
Something outrageous and human
Which wandered away from civilization
Leaving nothing worth having
No freshly killed meat, no computers or drawings of animals
He simply left an empty place where few ever went
How can something that big leave just the one footprint?
He must have landed after dropping some distance
Like a one-time parachute or alienist
Then he floated around or got pulled underground
Something small growing bigger where our memory’s missing.
The “real” Bigfoot, the one vaulting over some log in the forest?
His secret died when he did. He was so much smaller in person that nobody noticed.
What line of work could he take anyway
When his feet took him in every direction?
Who invited this man into civilization?
Made a footpath wide enough to eventually lead him?
Did anyone leave food out to feed him? A razor?
He walked around this world so carefully
Skirting a world too small for escape or recognition
Like an old Celtic god hunched over
So people who don’t believe wouldn’t see him
It was probably whatever he was eating
Padding his feet so things buried wouldn’t crawl into his vision
He made himself bigger, disappeared before any could see him
Leaving only impressions where the earth yields, leaving memories
Which these days must be no world worth remembering.

What men would give to find a potion to make man’s feet bigger.
Though Elvis wore such huge belt buckles
To lock his buttons against trespassing.
This man had always been standing at the back of photos
So everyone’s head could get in.
The woman who killed a giraffe called it “majestic, delicious”
I don’t think he wanted his spirit honored like this
So soon that all the evidence left
Is a spot in the earth where he came but then vanished.

 

 

Dan Gallagher is a former professor with over twenty years’ experience in publishing, TV, and New Media.