lease renewal
what can we lay upon our hands
those husking calliopes,
generous mouth that leans to yes &
tremor, the fold and flutter warmth
when the pressing of if & then
stains the silk on empty floors
settler spreads of grass become
a cavalry of arresting blades
stranger, you have managed
the unnecessary parts
of me- carrying them away
in small boxes, wrapped
against ill humor, hungry
mouths of insects, restless
ghosts made of packing tape
when I move again, remaining
will be the fresh wound
of a postal code, guidebooks
on must see & must do, wild forage
and the nearness of hands
the blooms in these guides
are unencumbered
by sweetness, and so they work
plying their work under fixed stars
velocity of grief
in the ache of my arms, I will know grief
sure as winding sheets, wrung in bleach
the circumference of your shoulders yet
wide enough to arrest sudden flight
relative speed is accounting through
comparison, my body or your body
where products of inertia are numb
hymnals to praise what remains, what left
the polaroid on the table, eccentric orbits
with condolences and light receptors
the slick emulsion massaged by photons
seizing the arc of your lifted hand
you are pointing a finger through the frame
describing an event already past, escaped
I experience the passage of the only bullet
that will ever matter
coda
passing along
through a local park
just a stand of birch
and goldenrod ringed
in sodium flood
I discovered the final
resting place of a wren
and gave pause, in a breath before
leaving it broken, to trust
instead how a strand of lights
along the short axis of
flesh shapes a luminous host
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