they were always there
from the beginning
infant eyes open and blink on themthe world as it always was
unredeemed by history
abashing childsight in a whitening roomand other quotidian amputations
flaring distantly now a starry abstractioninflamed absences
eat the scratched and damaged skin
imagined as soulwho can afford to flinch at pain
the one gate left open?that memory of complete sufficiency
a dark pulse of heavenwe have already been there and won’t go back
astir in the knived light
This poem first appeared in Attempts at Being, Salt Publishing, 2002
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