Abundant in the air,
thwacks and grimacing jaws –
a cracked wall in the one frame,
rubble in the next –
a nuclear flash
and,
at last,
the muffling down,
a caroling
in paper soft as spring
Abundant in the air,
thwacks and grimacing jaws –
a cracked wall in the one frame,
rubble in the next –
a nuclear flash
and,
at last,
the muffling down,
a caroling
in paper soft as spring

It’s not at all but
I’ll say it, like
open-heart
surgery
and not in rivulets
but sheets
and who knew
the pavement sloped down?

You could fall back down
into it,
flailing until the angel arises
to be the you,
the better day


I’ve folded them up and boxed them
(in a brown box, no more).
You’ll want no gloating, no
easy answers – Sentimental, I think
you’ll say – so I take my sunlit
paths of pine needles, my sugar-berried
friendship – and flatten and tuck them
into a neat remembrance
all for myself.

