I see you, rattling
in the dead end of that hallway. 

You have bruised your face. 
That is not the way out. 

Face forward, go along the hall 
to a courtyard where the sun shines.

Even on you, even you can feel!
Say yes, for myself, I will open. 

And open your throat, you might want to say thanks. 
Do you know what you looked like in that hallway? 

Demented and sad, friend, 
demented and sad. 

Liquid faces behind each minute 
An unexpected friend at the door, 

The water of birds gathers around the house. 
Happiness is theirs: they are birds.

A bird cannot be happy, only birds! Can be happy
Receding from the dead and their roses. 

The bark of a lonely dog 
Or a bent sob, self-smothering, 
Maybe I will see another face. 

 An instant, we seize 
The wave needs the arm of a starfish 
for an instant

Then, contracting regret, we retch. 
Unable to ride contact. We wretched- 

Perpetually- but everything is possible in the morning-

And this is it, the frost protecting a slush lip 
The sky scowling, here they are, 
As mythed, our penny days

Everything between us can be counted, taken
But yet something forms, is gained
Witchcraft on the mountain, fencing on the moor

Sparks! And another tooth lost... 

Something made up and vicious flows beside us in the river
Who is that carving a canyon with a stack of days? 
And when the water comes it's bitter, the bitter water of a polluted life. 

Why hope to be pure, why hope to purify? 
I hope to thrive, even in irritable murk, and I don't mean win. 
I can offer this full moon, this glossy once. 

The rupture rupts, and with effort 
I can turn the anger into a clever fish, 
Letting the mermaid's tail exit the day.