Listen—

i am a sorry son                weaving upward or

the spark in every raindrop                            shaken off                    somebody else’s web     i—

want to sprawl                                     across the stretching lifeline on your palm,               plucking

at your favourite song.

                                                                       Listen, i—

                                                                       am often moved

by the temple bell rope coiling thick

around itself.                                   i like to caress                                                the fraying threads

and imagine it’s                                the pale fuzz on the back of a lover’s neck.                 Pull hard

and ring three times to                     call me home, the hushed buzzing                     an afterthought

to a long night.    
                               I point my face                                    towards the dripping ceiling,

                               observe that each nail                                             rusts differently to the last,

which is to say that time                           gnaws at me    and imprints

                                           a different stain on each eye with each tear.                        My skin growing 
cratered, i moult                and hope to leave an intact shell with each season.

                                                                                                                                                                      I am jealous
of that temple rope,                         entangled and disparate,                                          whole in its swinging.
Listen—

there will always be leaving.        Mind your step when you pass through,             there are too many

splinters under this roof.    There will always be           crumbling i—                   think i lost my legs

somewhere i—

can’t see the trail behind me. Am i—

                                                                                              crawling backwards?