Hummingbird visits
A ruby throated specter
Shrill hawk call in trees

Sun warms dark water
Wraiths of mist dance on the lake
Waltzing through the reeds

Muddy clumps of earth
Dog paws working in the sun
Feverish intent

Chain mail of green moss
Blazing paths on slick tree trunks
Damp armor of shade

That suffocating
That's draped like a cowl
Over everyone
All the time

That rends fingers to skeletal shard
Scrapes face to glistening bone
Pushes the ground's whispering
Heartbeat right up to the hole
Where ears sat perched and
Peach colored

Until it all becomes a low ring
A dull hum
The panicked buzz of transparent wings
The monotonous
Plink plink plink
Throwing our bodies against
A fake escape

That suffocating
Is a burlap shawl
Sewn by the wind
That you are swaddled in at
****** birth
And a burial cowl
At bloodless death

We all wear it together
And alone
But the tailor makes sure
It's always on

Awful things happen
And we are flayed open
Left to bleed dry on the hook of time
But how wonderful
To watch honey bees waltz
From clover flower to clover flower
As we are left to mine an ounce of happiness
From the fetid vein of misery