I alibis

      I am sorry for the cradle

      the walk between dreams

      for the distance ignited

      in your eyes

      I count

      seeds from wavering dogwoods

      collect white knives

      from your mouth

      of soft death

      the assault and the still place

      blessings dark from the middle song

      of roiling waters between my teeth

      night ruminations

      of an oak trunk and the overgrown thunder

      a turn of justice in the branches

      small forecast in single flight

      a flash of gold

      of lost water and the wreckage

      my honey breath

      lies in the shelter of your bones

      soiled

      by the sounds of the dead

      that caravan beneath my feet

      I am tethered by alibis of blue air

      volumes of silence catch in my voice

      signet of the forgotten

      and the listed dead

      Motherchild

      I stroke this day

      speak the dance

      of a closed leaf

      jawed by the wind

      incarnate the language

      for heavy

      light

      buried in the white day

      on unwatered

      seed

      mistaking

      your bloodied arms

      for a random touch or dark songs

      for the white of your trill

      and bare stripped stalk

      with nothing but the bone

      and the wind

      wet through your words.

      Begin in the stick time

      I am dust

      faceless

      the wicked sands and the waters that caress the sky

      air

      caught

      in the turning grains

      I am the book of winds

      the red dew

      petals across my chest

      I am the chaste night mountain

      a coiled wind

      exhaling

      shadows of crystalline black

      I am the mouth of Great Blue Breath

      a bare scent

      on parched earth

      the ribbon of rising wing

      kiss of god

      broken

      in your pale

      eyes

      slip into the fire’s mouth

      with bells around your neck

      unknot the ribbons

      silk spun of stilled song

      stems curled

      intent on splitting