Here, miles under the earth, so many hours to dawn, paper cities
dripping saltwater, I slam against the limits of my flesh.
Lamplight bruises to shadow, many ridges lit
to foam, to graphite, a hunger
bald as a flame. Animal
after all this time.
One heartbeat, a little mud. A face in the poplar. Nothing means anything with nothing to show, no small bird in a closing fist. No Safeway run in the snow, no brand new can opener, electric teal.
I have written the charge of you in silence. Furiously rapt and dreadfully still. I understand the world from a leatherblack halfpast sky, red-hot and plain. The bass coats my lungs.
One woman writes about eros from the dark.
I read this years later. I know nothing of her
and all of it. Sleeplessly, I keep my watch.
do not be deceived as i
remake the world on your chest
every rock, stream, every recessed
alley and flush, towering citadel
these plasma hands crush
the kettle for cobblestone, shred
dry clay from the
bedroom walls for every
wayward glint of sun
hold still, lover, be
careful
as you breathe - mind
your children, invisible
as geology to the just now
finally asleep
meet the ceaseless weeping
with the softness
so required and let your
blood
slow
you would pay this price
a thousand times
you would
hauling far,
you cut the watch chain.
the world goes blue snow,
big eyes squinting under
yellow headlights,
separating
from their milk solids
on medium heat.
the highway signs stand
severe, austere, severely austere and
austerely severe
relics of a midwar blustering
shrapnel pinging and deadstopped
the frost a thing blind and
scared pink, tearing right for the
heart tearing
for the hot guts of your sick horse.
a voice on the phone is a good
trick and never one meaner.
After Kitchen McKeown
I crawl in the moss. It is easy to find god.
Shower water
hot to blister. Calling my blood
forward like a
mother from the gray. My body
is tired and my throat is closed.
Take my salt, my
work, skin and
polyester and two strong
thumbs. I give myself
to the passage
of it, to the soft rage and nothing
to show for it.
i
crawl in the moss.
it is easy to find
god
. icrawl
in the moss itiseasy
tofind god
icrawlin the mossit
is easytofind god