throw away our shoes and walk barefoot
past the kitchen converse
with broken glass in the sink with the hope that curses
provide protection against evil as the dark hours send out thinning
echoes and us chewing on our thumbs and us rolled in a ball
between hollow heartbeats unluckily hungering and wanting
what can’t be had to sound
consecration’s bell before fading from sight and how many
times and how many times
ask cobwebs for clarity as yet ignoring the
upcoming finale and imagine bright
gully-flowers blue for you yellow for me their summering
shape but autumn scent and wrap the baby
in a shawl while arranging
mobius patterns in the folds them and their freedom of
perception allow any who truly believe to run through baily fields past
the chapel cross heard and held a foreign word where
forgiveness arrives at twenty-eight
o’clock where the voice of god tells us to board a black
vessel push away from the abbot’s dock scrawl chalk ciphers
on ancient deckboards in honor of blessed mandel-da the
hours knit long ropes we invent propaganda about being
rightly religious black sunsets
in our eyes and nothing new to see but houses set afire
by a priest in his felt hat