A small withdrawal
Retreat
to a future
safe
from every laughter,
mouth to the ground
to pronounce.
Build it
all down:
mouth to pronounce
to the ground.
Blackout drinking
Please and please
unprecedented chemical —
be careful for me.
Eat
night bare
and sleep the day raw
and scratch
each freezing
hour elsewhere.
On the evening of a wedding
One day love
is mere
manipulation.
Someone needs something.
You sing them
your song.
On another day love
is purely
a possession.
You want something.
Someone paints
your picture.
You rock back and forth
between these days,
until a third day,
that day on which
the world
puts its mouth to yours.
The world’s mouth is a church.
Your mouth, of course,
is a pictureless room
in which an afternoon’s gods
get lost.
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