... (xii). (possibly, I lose track).

like water welling

up through the rocks

I rise

and spread

outwards

which sometimes

might reflect the sky

--does it matter?

a glistening shadow

what is, is

above you

or wavering on my skin

wind (ii)

and in only in the cracking bark
the air bricked high
the twitching, tightening
shuddering around your blood
in this way: the wind floods
and eddies in the avenues
within you
in this way: you are flung
through yourself
coat billowing
back from your shoulders

so is it your heart then
or the thudding
snarl
of flesh tangled
in the clawless
claws of
all of heaven
swooping
on the drifting
hills, the fading
drifts,
and the tattered grass

... (xiii)

all your dreams, all your desires

your hopes and what you want the most

the sharp silent thrust of your needs

don't set them marching in the street

the world won't bleed--hold your fire

the world don't catch--

you had better burn your ghost.

to you

to you--all of my life,
I have been coming home to you
you were never there
all my life, I have walked
in the shadow of history

who can
outpace
the world
hunting
under the swinging veins

might duck
between your ribs
might slide
between your bones

when the shadow
is moving
swift and empty

no wonder
I,
stumble in the silence
eyes white
gasping

at bay
in the chambered darkness

--I shake

winter, undying

the thin shadow
of the over-pass
I saw them rolling
bags of fish
down the sere sides of the canal
in the waving grass

I saw them scooping
up from the mud
fish from the lakes that had been drained
when the delivery-men
were long gone from
sunning themselves on the banks

the land of winter, undying

and I recalled,
in the shade of the bamboo
whispering, under the heat and fury
of the light, pouring
through the leaves
the drum heart-beats echoing
from some far cold night

the wind sings in the grass, now
the sky thin and clear,
broke free—

the day arches
cracked and bright

the icy
sunlight whips
through the branches
tears
across the ground

distance
hangs in shreds
the winter, undying

and the far rolling beat
rolls in me now
--all that was
--is, and will be
echoes

will come

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