from Animals with Sharpies (Drawn and Quarterly, 2013) by Michel Dumontier and Neil Farber via Personal Message

I grew up in a small team

and when I became leader I carried it with me, first

on my shoulders, then in my hair,

then knitted closely into my jersey.

My internal organs provided support.

My last post was in a communication channel. My duties

involved scraping fresh materials

from its walls. I flushed birds from the air

with my publications. I thought on my feet. I slept on the floor.

I came to know the experience of sound.

Over time my strengths built upon one another like strata.

My knowledge base, once tender

became thick with callouses,

horned with excellence. I later built from it a motorhome

which I parked in a field of data.

It now houses many different audiences

while my diverse hens

work the field,

surprising information in the oxalis.

I am at home

when no two days are the same; the day

that is the same projects a fear in me from beginning to end.

My weakness is the day that is too much

like itself. I leverage it onto a table, any table, for I am flexible

and cut out its environments. They come readily, glistening.

I have spent whole weeks with my mouth pressed to a projector

my heart commissioning oxygen. I have been driven

by the workforce of my passion. I have been caught and lifted

by deadlines which have redrafted my skin. My body reports to the soil.

My resulting blood has pleased me because I have only ever bled plans.

from Animals with Sharpies via Personal Message

from Animals with Sharpies via Personal Message