What but bells sound the universe
The toll of time unwrapping verse
The sentient smells of alit glory
The sun of man reveling Story
The card houses with clapboard feet
The candlelit favors indiscreet
The archangels, hair unfurled
The manors of war; the avenues curled

Lessons eyed blind the mind -
Shutter the daylight; leave the saints
Those freed from earth
Their voices faint
Adrift as the last boat
Sighing with the tides
Into the depths of midnight
We’ll glide, glide, glide

Slider, this
Cellular vestibule
Pink yellow capillarium
**** sack, wretched thump sump
Stuffed with sauce and rind
“I was always meant to go”
He said on the way out of his mind
The *** Runner and his misbehaving
Alchemy, of blood stunted
With the black soot of
Planetary catastrophe

So pumps the crimson, so it curdles the sleep in us all
The vacuum of souls so like their universe
One note, one verse
Ad infinitum sung, no … hummed
Until the eyes darken and the skin loosens and the
Teeth yellow and drop from the gums
Blood thickens with Weary, with boredom of Springs and Fall
Every word the same, every face known,
Every day a rhyme
Ether to amber to stone
Fruit cake and peppermints
Candlelit stockings the children
Swat at
Christmas syllables, sentiment
Sung until the liquor melts
Candy canes and magenta leaves
And the sleep
And tinsel trees

Objects we dangle in moonlight
The luster of God, eyes it might
Rocks and weeds and broken glass
As midnight makes its gentle pass

Once was heaven and it shattered
The shards drove from mountains
Creatures of habit
Broken backs, whetted skin
Dancing Devils and infection