1.
The white light is
unkind unspooled
into opacity’s dim drain
all colors freighted
presentiment
and slow architecture of a hull
thin shade sticks
unweighted
before sleep
figurative
cruelty of the dream cave
blown apart
unwarned fears
body suspended in its storied fold
return of the mother witch.
2.
From this thimble of cold
stiff weave
could trace
a patient aperture
face rallied for a swarm
and other annotated masks
escaped to elsewhere
holding their wretched rhymes in check
blather of guide
its singular call as if to follow along
a collect or ruin of the field
having not warmed up having disobeyed the command
prelude held at the site mouth agape
chastised by claims real chains and real straps harbor of the world
her plural her various momentums halted
installed.
3.
And so release the episode from its snarl
names of the untransformed
not birds
their rigorous archive or commons to warrant, to list retrieval
outside narrative dusk
history’s mercurial roost
girl at the cemetery gates bridge across urban colossus crowd
photographed after the fact and after the fact
erasures
revisions
images snow angels
and the great black crow
indicting the hawk
yet to be spoken thought
startled into last light
not ghosts
hungry in the aftermath identical quantum cast as flight
long roped beards of ice weeping.