in anything, uncoupled, there is death.
carneys, clowns.  canaries, in them, that sing.
soul: one of many karaoke bars
from which the devil was primarily
thrown.  this work

of taking, from the body, its death.  work
for men whose eyes if shattered would release
nothing.  men at your window.  men watching
you watch
horror films.  the cant of each head
polling, in its mask, a sameness.

soul's arbiter:  toothless.
because it is a tooth.  the poor, they take
the head of an ant
from the die
of god

     they take it to mean
decay.