from DARKLING

 

EXCERPT

 

Inside:        a story —

                         inventories, incidents —

                                    pleading to be flossed

                   from the teeth of silence —

 

Leaching congealed vowels

                  lately of / longing for / words —

 

Explanations not yet factored into claim: —

                                                                                   this is this —

                                      that is that —

 

As in first annunciations/ as in debuts

                                      for old roles /

 

                                            as if to atone:

                                                                           yes, I love you —

 

Namers courting drifting sands,

                                      fated to root heels,

Toes into dunes rampant with consonants of

Unreachable destinies,

 

                                  lonely nouns of hearts

Pilgriming to wished-for places

                                                   on the verbs

Of desire —

                  destinations where nothing feels

New but an aching need to shout out.

 

Again and again the narrative howls for words.

 

Circling, leaping into

                        / out of / shade, but it makes

Only wrong turns —

 

      how can it say the right thing? — shall it

Pledge never to do that again,

                          to be good next time?

 

                          — a daughter

 

Parents —

      blooms at the edge of a small scream —

 

In the beginning is the end — words and more buds —

                              fingers knotted / throats

Choked —

            syllables scuffling for a spot / patient for a time

 

Entropies, upstretched vacancies,

                                                           delays

Grazing sound —

                      too soon for /

in the aftermath of / being —

 

Amok with what is unseen / unsaid: love me,

Touch me, make use of me —

 

                          preludes

 

                                          as in dawnings,

 

                          distances

 

                                          as in prayers

 

Ensnared at the main gate —

 

                               and now —

 

                                               and now—

 

                                                                                                     oh god —

 

                        they’re dead.