Touchstone
whatever the merits were whatever delusions of restraint
or genesis in the numbering star-clouds
all for a boy under oath
under night cover given to deviate or dysfunction
given to the endmost hindsight so now what
I mean what were the chances
my castaway
emerging figure inclined to flourish
over the mainland anyplace palliative of days
I refute in the oscillating pulses of a touchstone
time I occupied so much as to look away
from the transient physics of this ongoing
praise pattern
impossible without you
even if I abide
in the half-expected temperature
& modulation of my decline
into despair
even as I ignite in the oversupply
defaced form nothing really
but the family name for have no mercy
or mark my word
or my own name makeshift for the deposition
a trip switch
to threnody
to mornings of another missing through-line no matter
the genetic preference the proteins
needed for immunity
for second-hand marvels
and remote meetings
all things antecedent
in the cadence and ferocity
of a wind-up clock zero fucks to give
or did you come at me crazy
all search and destroy
as another day began
same today gone tomorrow
same sorrow a shitshow parading at dawn
in bone-break and bullet holes
in heart-shaped trinkets little ABC in the ether
in superable distress in suspension
each intake of breath oceanic
Tunnel
There to my right was the tunnel’s wall-work emitting static shock
all hell it must have been to the biomorph evolving
over time. I was parent now to a generation
in the grid system ushering my daughter
across to absorb the aloneness
and rage of human inhabitants who
abandoned the shelter as commanded
by the holy book foretold in the floodlights
from our drone delivery for survival
In the tunnel was the hand releasing her impossible
grip around my emergence I, the mother who
made quiver all fanfare I, the fix
and fracture held to the crystal measure
I was the blood-cell accomplice
contractor and mercenary I was
as oxygen levels dwindled in the desolate
corners every airborne risk I meant
to redeem with liturgical frequency—
or did I decrepitate in brutal contrast
as an aggregate henceforward of air?
The tunnel had returned us to the eruption of plasma
from the sun in particles radiating into Earth’s
enclosure the planet’s magnetic field
a muddle. Its density increased
now with more particles
that pushed against the satellite’s
orbit in atmospheric drag
pulling matter out of the pathway.
The tunnel served once as human shelter but no longer
there was barely enough room now to wonder
in the early hours of the dark whether
the threshold was equipped for us to safely
execute the next pivotal phase to avail a person’s
fate in the fury of aerosol droplets
consecutive days by hundred-count
surge unceasing diminished
perimeter between sleep and waking
circles of day in dilation
overtone of crowds in grey
except for the sirens and screens
in that initial contact with the atmosphere
some sweep across the distance
maybe a suggestion to obviate
a second or third attempt to release
myself from confinement
under the striated clouds over
the downtown skyline
Remainder
I came to know it was my turn now to disintegrate
below the tangled mesquite
and whether there was ever a story to begin with
outline of a man
in deference to the pain that tells in night cover a boy
can learn to modulate petrified on the highway
in scale in sequence in phase form evanescing
liquid inclination in the physics of sand
unresponsive strangers here they are the barely living
and what they do to endanger
is no talisman proper to sorrow’s
material disappearing
haze that hovers
as fine as satin thread
when land met sound
in time for transformation
on the horizon line any semblance of pitch
or rustle the reflecting pool
vibration off the road
blood surge clicking in my vein
at the temples plume of myself
effervescent in the field further
amalgamates to the tonal brevity
keeps me safe in this world not
alone in the company of my wish
fulfillment bright keenly in quench
cascade in bantam advances
Season
Season passing from the one encounter I dodge I take cover again
but rarely succeed in reaching anywhere new in the landscape
maybe if I bury the coins for those who live among us
unattainable in the subdivision between citrus
and palm in the lot behind the emergency
care center officials report
a moving situation very quickly
I adapt to protect the citizens
more precise as I influx
when it falls on the government to help
says the bishop on the chief of state
says the county judge on the unvaccinated
says the medical examiner
they who seek asylum do they
carry diseases absent here do
they fill our hospitals with need
for treatment is the answer
in our rage room we’ve
accommodated a selection of music
for the blood flow
here are the clubs and sledgehammers
for you to break things
every corner of this house for us to break things