(from This is Only A Test)
16. Lullaby
from the ancient blessing Lilith abi or Lilith away. as in a means to keep a demon at bay. they say she is beautiful. they say she is harmless. say take this pendant and keep it close. sing lullaby to forget. the song is easy. the meter a metronome. the click click click click click click so rapid. as if the very soil were afraid.
24. ( )
we were making
love in the sand
there was no light
and that was all there was
I couldn’t imagine
perfect articulation
of bones and tendons
you straddled
and unraveled
and that was all
our full geology
a cross-section of myth
and doubt
the shift of hip
os coxae
basin of all that
is after us
the night resumed
and we knew nothing
would take us away
Threshing
Too late for lessons. The teacher builds students of haystacks and grains. A semi-circle without desks. They are forever late and indifferent. Their pencils are still sharp. Their papers have blown into the dirt road or stuck to the fence. However, they are pliable and are beaten wildly with sticks. The shrieks carry far across a land. All its tall grasses have been removed. This is done in preparation of bread and feed. The stacks are explosions of dust and chaff. A pedagogical sneeze. A nose wiped on a sleeve. The work settles into hair, the creases of clothes.
Prey
We keep tight groups. Creation can undo us slowly. Beginning at the eyes and the face where there is most heat. Then all becomes sound and loose-lipped hope. Take the river crossing for example. On the far side a bear circles and circles patiently destroying a bull moose. We wait days for everyone to get their fill. The water mumbles and repeats carrying off the bleating. This world obsessed with trees. A way through between clumsy spilt paths that point out and back.
