Oh God
my crowded skulllllll... if it takes too much
can it be wrong to want to wander
to wish i had not
to have no claim on anything, the world the woods, the silence
the black bear's crusted paws
[this terrible discovery of wilderness, forgotten so as not
to be forgiven].
Eat this apple, tart and slicker than ice. It is wet
outside you will catch coiled (it is cold outside
you will ruin your feet).
We take such gray photos only to look as we wish we could,
pretending to be sorry, mmm, keep on dancing, goodbye. It's been nice to know
you now you
are gone.
Long, too long. It's been tombs and bombs since i saw you waiting
in the thicket watching me waltz by.
If only i was strong
enough to love you let you
see me,
be you
in my skin my tight-lipped love my everlasting world
without end amen.
If i was smaller perhaps, or large enough to be invisible,
clean and jasmine,
Justice with a scale and liquid eyes. We all file past,
all flounder flapping fins and wings, wanting nothing
but to sing and hear the rush of every verb ascend with us.
The sun and song of quickened things, virtuous
and salty on our tongues.
If you let me stretch
my flesh across the branches like a fated parachutist, like some tragedy,
(i will run i will ruin my feet it is ok i hope)
laughing that painful breathless way the uterus opens up
now we smell our own blood
and the last word
to be spoken is good.
