on the construction of a poem
From the language trapped in a colony of bees, instructions follow:
i
an alphabet aping
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
a sound
a wooden hull grouses in the distance, the planet’s therapeutic bark
an image
incoherence circles back in the flag of a red squirrel’s tail, the heart’s circumference
a cacophony
laced shoes see-saw on the powerline in the trembling, the cosmos’ swinging constellations in the shape of strung-together partners
a scratch
broken bottles plot against a wave’s’ black neck, dredging
a nub of words
lighthouse drowning
a code
from testament the grist of moving place, the jargon of morning boxes
felled as the land roared, inconnu
a drop
domestic figures narrate home tree by tree, cloth belts the trunks away in
the dark
a poem
words that come forth through strain of ligament and organ-rot
a moment
in the distance a potter’s field, teeth strung together with cow cud and wire
gone the grief and the gilding of the poem or you
an involution
syllables the size of flight and bee hum shrink the heart
a plead
skull and rib and memory’s organ marking home devoured by the moon
