Let the body be breached & loose the tremble
let everything of hide sweat long and suckered as a tongue riding
along the ridges of some cold set sugar, and
let also the heart unfurl, a yo-yo your exacting hand
wound too tight /now abound/ and let
the best and worst of us linger a moment
as if we were moths and laughter a porch light
My friends, there is nothing we were sent to do
here, nothing we’ve been called for, and time
is a wet dog dripping a line of slobber
to slug in the dust, an animal we’ve tried to outpace, but let us not
outpace it. Let us wait. Let us hear in concert our litany
of exhaustions. The sun insists even at vast galactic distance:
let our skin set free its motes and pleats and vapors
and drink, and set a dish of water down