Etiolation

565

nearer to our breathing
a memory of love
the bitter dead stand by
beautiful once
now remorse songs trickle from the
eye of the night
the mockery and horror of destiny its
madness falls from your hands
who are you to sing of love's mystery?
the time will come when the trick's at an end
your tears are afflicted
with a world that's shaking
your sweetness endures and
leaves me in ashes
smoking and sputtering
till morning brings me home.

566

O hell is melting
as if it was stone
the brain of your
heaven is white as a bone
raw in head
your prayer is answered
your windows are open
and your firstborn's undone
was it the night
that first misled you?
was it the stranger who
laughed on the phone?
or was it your eye
that the kind word
that said that it loved you?
that prayer that you gave us
now lies in the womb.

567

the rage of the heart, a spirit of mercy
breaking the anguish,
expires in grief
you who are blackened with the waters of service
you come in flames and leave in time
imagination no longer serves to explain you
a hand outstretched to grasp at the sun
with me or not I slip through your fingers
and fly out the window to eyes of god