My clocks unwound,
I tell time easy,
by the angles of shadows
piercing
my floors.

I let them point me
to how to be
next,
follow them in circles,
chew lip askance
at whatever sun
I'm slowly crashing.

The Greeks made flaws fatal,
but now they merely
tire us,
until we slowly resign
ourselves
to our organs.

We'd be better
to be worse.

I used to find freckles
and write them down.

Now that I weather
like wood,
I find I prefer
weathered wood.

I should be surprised,
but I don't do that anymore.

When the full glint of doubting
came by
this morning,
I didn't hear it knock.

I was busy breathing
and counting angles
in the best air of the day.

I came to
in a cobblestone temple,
ten-foot square,
but full of things.

I found there lightbulbs,
and gnawing,
and came across
cooking,
everything but windows.

When we said our goodbyes,
something strange happened.

I couldn't feel the ground,
my feet,
my mass.

What quiet powers you have,
to turn me to bubbles,
to float me on wind.

Corsairs align
across a french horn army,
tympani cannonades
and fluting rifles.

Pennants slap proud
against whistling breezes,
while boots pack home
firmer beneath them.

Sloops slice the harbors
under sandstone towers,
and the minarets gleam
stubborn, unworried,
in the face of new ruin.