The earth will know your flesh,
Embrace your marrow’s last memory of bone
More encompassing than any lover.

You were received from earth's body,
As much her child as sky’s; even more perhaps
When you are no longer breathing.

Into raw earth, you will change incomprehensibly
As incorporeal as starlight itself,
And nameless as shadows in moonlight.

Just as daylight dies, you disappear
Down into the deep foundry of death;
Swallowing darkness, in bowels of earth again.

a man

spoke softly

rarely

never painted pictures only

etchings; creeping

flaking soft

white space

slender, black loose

he never spilled

never toppled

what

was this man

what was it

made him

what hour

poured him forth

what pastel day

of which year molded

this man; cursed him

to place him among

hyenas

Inside your head there

Are no

Horrors or

Visons anymore

Only the pickly

Sweet and sour

Silence of

The grave

the coke machine
up on the hill,
the hill it’s been on
for forty years or
more,
reads in angry red
letters:
SOLD OUT

the coke
the diet coke
the sprite
the fanta
and
the mello yellow
too

all gone
but it still begs
for your dollar
fifty
even though
it can’t give you
anything back

the forty year-
old coke machine
up on the hill
is sold out
but it’s still thirsty
and so are
you