soft shroud

1

once a thief stole from a thief –

stole the thief’s ring, so the thief

stole the thief’s finger to get the ring back.

the ring rattled on the bone, the bone rattled

in the hand. the hand rattled in the hands

which rattled in the arms of the handless thief.

a thief came to scoop up the bones of the thieves

who were stealing the silence of the night

with their clattering and cries –

came to scoop up the bones and put them in order,

sorting arms from arms and

ribs from ribs but the rib bones

hooked at his own rib bones

it’s still raining. floodlights go on

under the bridge so that the excavation

can continue through the night.

we dig so deeply now that the skulls

are black and heavy as stones,

and sometimes the stones

crack open like skulls, empty.

the rows of tibias are arranged.

the femurs are labeled and arranged.

the piles of hands and feet

bleed their mud; these will take some time.

traffic proceeds on the bridge above us

and the bridge     shakes in the air

soft shroud  - kissing the freeways quiet

                                    raintrees float, islands

wild burial grounds        I carry you here

years when the shroud wrapped the wound

it was vague, scratched out pill-shaped

blank on summer stairs, a white spill

in the fragrant night, outer warm whispering

drunk colours & at immunity’s edge

the white flower

shriveling up

white persuades

the mouth white

sealed the pinched

face blunted anaerobic

WHITE tachycardic gulp

face instanced on the STAIRS

WHITE force gape squared tongue when

the pill is in a fork extracts

wet marrow scrapes

through

corrugate

clean up

sealed

sarcophagus speech slides off it

thought effectively

slides off it

white is a vitreous

relation to the world. K Rd’s

freezing wind at the crossing

encases thigh bones

hips adhere to their own

sealed up

mouths

isolates frozen

we don’t remember this together

your inner ears

burnt black

your funny mouth

stitched closed

women come to the sunlit lee to volcanic ground women with heads down hips shoulders en bloc women carry the serious body

women come to the sunlit lee to volcanic ground tethered to dumb adductors inch through stone skies women carry the decaying body

women come to the sunlit lee to volcanic ground arms erect encrusted women the bones raise onwards through the ether of the former body

women come to the sunlit lee to volcanic ground sustaining the very last syllables long beyond the given road

keeping even the well’s very last tears drawn through blood’s black dust

to wash

for the turn of the waist, its easing

for the relief of the lime enclosure

we don’t remember this together

inner ears

burnt black

drunken beast

in yellow plastic

roaring operatic

roaring door

open to the night’s

drive and

this is what you did

you do this paintcan

falling

from the roof

splattered

drive destroyed

attendants wheel

the motorbike over

the bridge

is operatic

coins on dirty carpet

stripped wires by the socket

here you write as a woman

name hovering drunkly

over a piece of paper

& come

to give the things away

not your

dirty things

hands and imprints

overlain

name hovering drunkly

over a piece of paper

appears to be your name, you bankrupt

it is not

it is not

hands and imprints hovering

hollows of crashing dirty skin’s

best shudder how was that

for a fireplace how was that for

your love hurts so I push up

into its chimney-ice face

drips my full mouth

will we seal it off and listen to a bird die in there

banging tin walls echoing Christmas making

the cats go crazy in their lustful listening

hand over the opening the white eyed

skin speaking dumbness

attendant stumbles

across a full wet field

under a box of books

greasy shawl sun-cooked

heels slice grass

into the mud’s suck

coming to the pavilion

to give away your books

if I carry you here

you’ll germinate in green stars

through shroud unwound

wound unwinding as pelagic sky.

a skeleton arm

hangs from a star

the fingerbones

droop to my earlobe

touching a sex arrayed

 as small blue fish

twisting gorgeous at the waist

which doesn’t know you

or your death

on a balcony of iron springs

wormeaten wood

spills into woods

a carpet for sleepless roots

here rest’s the waking

skin as an eye

blue as a bridge of small blue

fish tremble the fluid between