light

        sunlit grind-stones

filed your eyes 

a flash in the branches

        would turn them back

to slice

all the sunlit days within you

        banish the heavy

and the sweetness

the haze in the harsh

glare of the light

              you have learned

you made cities

      of the dirt and the last

light on the clouds

tear your hands out

from them

      and there is dust

no rubble

you--

scattered on the hillsides

you--ruins

in the empty sunlight

you--might

with the lizards darting

in the jagged

walls and broken tiles

--that the truth

would not spare--

you--might

it could not take your hands

you might stand

with 

       cities,

in your palms

you might tear into time

the borders of the stolen countries

the names of the broken backs

                         you might rend the light, even

in the shadow

of your arms