The tadpole buoyant as basalt The seahorse horsing in assault The owlet in his greenery The narwhal in his cup of sea They all believe They all believe
But collusion bleeds through back alleys From parapets that end on feet When one is weak they discretely meet They throw the bones into the street And they progress And we retreat
And all the books our fathers wrote Are in the middle of the road Little by little, we implode History brittle, brown and broke We can't remember what was spoke So we stare in wonder at the smoke What it begets is born alone We know not now what we have known
Ladies, breathe deep against your whalebones For your children come home made of stone
The terror seething sees a way Or like the wheezing of the bay In miniature agonies They travel westward on the breeze Bring us all to our knees
The dappled horse, the sorrel mare With eyes that do not see but stare Beneath boots as black as malachite He drives the nag into the night Into the night
And all the baby boys we've born With eyes averted from the storm Sent off to die in perfect form We know not now what we have known
Satellite photos, rhetoric See how the euphemisms stick And when they come back broke and burned Those who return have no return