SISTER FADE
I.
friends of intimacy
drag this blunder bruise blue towards your outstretched sky
fist frames & here’s where the story ends
or goes grotesque: jangle pop or death metal
the patience of my adorations tested
horror streets, gorecore
guitars, each stick smash
skin drawn tight but boy error
devoid of sky
just holes gushing air
into your space
I am dragged together to tether shelter
until wind wailing eases into something soft,
near silence alone inundating—
sustained note sutured
stitched to ears,
layers of lifeless voices
weaving into fabric
paradise foreshadowed
by this paradox of breath
surrounded by these ghosts
see them unbound slithering
from the holes see them tentative & lurching
into shape from spit moved through
in noise, heat
with those drums lay down
your guns burn
the badges—
II.
sky oranges & glazes
dance recital of bones
bulleted body graced
unseen arisen on toes
lovely hangs head on knees
burning with body & youth
in a closed-off world
survival, they sell it to you
as an emblem of strength
but once a sister I had
strong as [ ] resilient as [ ]
& here now she wraithed
& denim & sneakers ripped
III.
death’s idea
of twilight,
the whole
notes of a
requiem the
massed clouds
croaked above
somber fields
DARKNESS WAS UPON THEM
For a brief moment they faded without awareness—
darkness was upon; they misunderstood
darkness was same as hallucinating,
they misunderstood
to slip in between
meant adrift
with anchor;
that ascension was a vibration without light, a kind of nonattendance.
They misunderstood
morning meant lark
lunacy & ragged squirrels—
a way of being
& beyond
an arrival without
cleft or whole
notes diminished
in minors
to the guts of feelings they could not feel
as if,
the wind
were a
kind of
fur rubbed
against the
face only
in imagination,
or that in between where once—
imagine a touch
without actually
being touched
& so
into this
darkness
as if,
swarmed bees
honeyed
stuck with
wobble
frenetic legs
not to soar
with unease
still adrift streaks
liquid gelled
into tears
in the air
weak stars— imagination’s tapestry,