Friday, April 11, 2014

Silent Gods Come Stumbling Over


Molting sighs and smoke
You fare forth exploringly
Rose-faded

A name comes toward you
In of all places
The back of tomorrow

Where your mother’s roses
Refuse to bloom

In all that air
The name stays on there
In all that air where
You remember the tabernacle of childhood

The window where you kissed the void

What does it sound like
Your song all tangled earthliness
Your song upbraiding distances?

You go on each night wordfree
Casting sacred signs at shadowgrass
O watch out!

The meridians are wandering again

The dead poet’s mother tells you
Her son was wanted back in Arkansas
But not by law

You think about the poet’s
Cold-wintered syllables

They say—
Who says?—they say
You’re a shady customer
Keeping vigil at the poet’s grave

They say this
Is the end of granting names

They say over you
You cast your fate

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