Temper as a Porcupine
A man reached for an apple the tree withdrew from his grasp
A red-faced interval apple on a feral tree
An abandoned homestead foundation stones in the midst of
field and gardens revert to woods
rusted plowshare and coulter bridle ring and a length of leather
A red-faced interval
A woman stands unmoving before her window
watching it gorge itself on windfall apples
turning them in its hands compellingly like a human’s
She feels them stitching across her chest
How he wanted that apple how many apples? how many stolen apples
Nothing but her Velvet Self
A girl in a lantern slide sheared from fire
travelled a century with the gift of tears
What do you want dead one Remember Rose
a flammable girl newly arrived but already singing
Better to sleep than eat Remember Rose
when contempt would not even speak the word would silence
salt pigment
the lock with the charred shot bolt
how many rise to grief Remember Rose
eager striking out
wool trimmed with velvet fitted to bones’ white horses
His Undoing
The sky is a vast wing you can smell it
lie down over the length of you become a horizon
First kissed of your father but never his best beloved
Self-exile asleep in the desert hip jut and shoulder the mountains’
bones
Dream-stone for a pillow from a distance a stranger arrives
All night you lie wrestling with him believing that effort becomes you
your flocks will multiply earth groan under the weight of you
Esau will weep at the sight of you With one finger you lift the
stranger’s palm
it balances where a nail might enter
The stranger touches the flesh that is always in shadow
No earthly power could have remained intact
