kingsoftrain

think of wind as a thing that’s mastered its nothingness.

cradle
the unfinished.

yes think, then cradle.

hands shape their own leaving.

sheep because sheep looks as if it’s waiting for an angel to have a thought and sheep because the saying of sheep guides the mouth into silence and sheep because if you close one eye in church

the circle my son draws looks like a fish

and circle because I made for it a church and church because he once saw a rabbit that wasn’t and a stomach that was and the two of you

we could not lift

~

DOG MUSICS

i.

brother
while slicing
an apple
changes
his name
to earshot

ii.

an orange eats everything
but its mask. there was no ocean

iii.

until we hid from the storm. ticks are crickets

iv.

that belong to the poor

~

MILK MUSICS

newborn
with back pain.

(the cigarette that takes the pulse of our ghost)

it is raining

on the feet of god

~

THE BEAR

flyless wall. box of baby clothes

in an empty dream

~

SHE MUSICS

saddest
when peeling
an orange
these days
of sink
and crib, the earth

in parts

flat

~

BARN MUSICS

as blind
as hair
yeah that’s
your father
spelled
into baiting
hosanna’s
cricket
by a red
a gaslit
mouse

~

ACCESS MUSICS

I have a friend whose father called every basement the devil’s treehouse. a friend who’s here today because she hid a knife. whose brother met god too early on the path to god and whose mother would jump from anything to fix a tooth…

there are people who don’t smoke
who want to

when it rains

~

REMOTE MUSICS

I write in this tongue and pray in another.

we sleep
and are kissed
by an ear
in three
beds: train, cow, frog.

if you’ve seen one roach,
you’ve seen them all. that’s where they come from.

~

ORPHAN’S VIGIL

i.

strength
not the strength
a statue keeps.

ii.

mother’s hunger
the hunger

of marionettes.

iii.

the beggar
father hides
and the beggar
he hides

behind.

iv.

brother
don’t sleep.

the paper dolls
have been cutting
your hair.

~

THE MEEK, THE MEEK

i.

in him like the sewing needle of god’s mother; is lightning.

in you a koan.

ii.

now that she wants the surgery removed
they tell her
the womb
is a hook
that looks like a womb.

iii.

everywhere work.
stalks
pitch

the golden blood
of brooms.

iv.

mother in her rocker
her eyes
tire swings
her tongue

a cat’s tail.

v.

fourteen
my sister
martyrs herself
under the monkey
mad
in the stoplight.

vi.

in a church
hangs a coat
with a man
in it.

vii.

does not break loose
like they say

all hell.

~

CLAW & CIGARETTE

eating is done fast and alone. teeth
chatter
in the corner.

a rabbit
muscles
in the mouth.

sleepwalking

is like something
brother
won

at the fair.

we nudge him. put the bread
back
of the mouth. think injured

deer, slanted

mailbox.

~

how in a small bed
you shift
might your son
bite
your longer
arm, how a stone

can become a bowl
you see
with your mouth

I didn’t miss god or think I was ugly. had mud enough
to make
from memory

the scarecrow’s
stomach. I ate my brothers

they ate
me back. any loss

became a hole
in a snake, any needle

a worshiped
feather…

beneath a star
with the brain
of a swan
the infant
makes it
perfectly
god’s bitemark
soup

an angel is the bed of a ghost. god a crow

warning anthills
of milk