We get to work
mud, bricks
and broken glass
it’s a mess

dust and smoke
float in the crevice
of a question
the answer is yes

A full moon in August
barefoot, we touch the sea
it rocks an old story

the rusty furnace
grinding heat
sweat, salt, butter
oil, and beer

In an ocean of cool
white sheets
a whale comes up
for air

A splash and fall
the giant island sinks
we swim inside
this dream
for now

This is the story we must now swallow
in your not-so-silvery spoon
we swallow the marbles
we swallow the plot holes
we swallow the cow and the moon

An acre of dreams disappear in a thimble
which is all that's left
to keep you from
the long needle
that sews
nothing

He swallowed the night, all black
and came back all blue
I lost my face, he said, my faith
I lost down in a hole
and it’s all your fault

It’s your fault I lost my teeth
now I’m falling out of you
and who will be there to help me find
the laws I lost in the diamond skies

At last it’s never enough let going
At first it’s all instinct not really minding
but to prolong longing and to protect
tenderly, the soft yolk of his soul

When a mother quits
she hangs the umbilical cord
over the door
which is left open

Outside the sky falls
into streets of black ice
he runs backward through the dark
where signs of hope are not all
that feel lovingly gone
and hurtingly small