I am not well, she said
and like a rabbit on a lonely road
my heart froze

I see the eyes
dark on the horizon
that think they are unseen
smell the foul odors
of hopelessness and despair
that believe they are
unsmelled
hear the voices
hard and tight
against the wire fence
that trust they are silent
and unheard
feel the trembling fingers
in the night of my past
that assure themselves
they are unfelt
alone in this
yet hoping I am not
the only one,
she said

and into the surface
of that darkened road
the rabbit vanished

I see him
in fading breath of August
plaid pants black
socks
peddling his wooden
bicycle
along and over the cobbles

I swear it's hewn
from a single block
as is
he himself
with the stripes flying
across his tattooed
back
a hot rope
of light
pulling him along and
across
this page

the stone one
he says, passing,
was too
heavy

and out of the alpine mists
a lone figure appeared

well, not lone, entirely, for
upon its graying and wind-blown head
rested a yellowish straw-sewn bird (?)
of some kind
didn't really get, you know, a very good look at it
running, as i was, for my life
but i did hear
in heated passing
as through that shadowy figure
i seemed to slip:

there's a mountain up ahead
made of smoky black glass
stone magic
you can-

speak up, **** you, i rejoined
i can't hear very well through
these woolen and aged
ears

if you try, it returned, barely louder,
you can really
SEE
through the ****** thing
don't ask me how
it just works
have a look, you'll see
for YOURSELF
miles away you can make out
things adistant
from where you stand

and so, arriving
finally
at the foot of it i
tried, fool that i am
leaning in close and squinting
****** idiot though i felt myself
to be
for the rock was rock and
SOLID
dark mineral regular ordinary
ROCK
nice try, i thought, beginning
to turn away

but then
just then
it worked, by god, through
the smoky black stone
i could
SEE
sure enough
miles afar and years away
there
among trees and hills and
bee-laden flower heads
there
i saw

you

frost rime, moss, and shatter'd
limb
tall spruce a wanton guard

our thoughts like steam from
broken mouth
trail back to summer's yard

while wait and lie and wait
again
the ridgeline constant scann'd

and bow and blade and axe near
by
and fires held low, not fann'd

with voices soft and breath kept
close
and furs and leather clutch'd

we swore and begg'd to gods we
knew
and others we knew not

'til dawn a misty lifeless haze
broke forth her frozen glow

and through the mouth of Hell
itself
the first of them did blow

like leaves before a horrid
storm
the Roman legions came

yet worse, alas, before the crest
a beast we could not name

bore down upon us cruel and
fierce
and widely gaped its maw

the cane corso Romans bred
to rend us tooth from jaw

my axe a useless feeble limb
no strength to give it seed

no time or space to swing or
slash

but time afresh to bleed

dim light of winter
cats thirsty
and now the dog has gone
up and down
the stairs at least thirty times today
while out beyond the fogged
glass
of the south wall
a wind-blown
     snow
          man
props himself up with half
a martini glass
and inside
here, with us,
rests a magnificent
sable antelope
its dense pelt fuming
and steaming
us toward spring

When toward your eyes
my crooked heart
reaches
there comes a flow
of good and bad but
mostly good
and this in turn sets
a glorious blaze
upon the distant hills
all consuming, sending
forest beasts out
upon the plains where
further scatt'ring then
occurs
until all resettles itself again
the birds alight
and preen one another, the
squirrels come to rest
tiny underleaf mammals begin
to quiet themselves
and you breathe and i
breathe
and the warm surety
of us
comes over and
upon
it all

this cloak of tattered
wishes stitched and gathered
by weary fingers you
placed upon my shoulders
allowed me passage
through dreary nights
storm-ravaged
days
safe, though not entirely
unattacked
i climbed crawled dragged limped
just as you said
i could though i didn't
believe
over stony sharp crags
barren slopes
through treeless forests
where all the owls stood
earthbound
past clinging vines wet
and heavy with unfulfilled
dreams
into icy winds that rent flesh
from my sodden bones
into and upon waters so
deep and dark and roiled
not a human eye could see what
hells their depths succored
until at last
with the weight of never-ending night
the cloak
and i
reached forth and fell
limp
into your embrace