[For the animal is sleepy-time...]
       

For the animal is sleepy-time, is bye-bye, is numb-knees, is jewel-
      weed, is sorry.
For the animal can take the face out of the lake but not the lake
      out of the face.
For the animal leads the doe through the blizzard, gunnysack and
      all.
For the animal unsettles the hatchlings from lavender's ash trap.
For the animal mimeographs pin bones & ice fish & pine-leaf...
      wind ...& star.
For the animal's apparatus measures light pollution, the sound of
      whiteness over the city.
For the animal tunnels lichen from the lantern's sad rain.
For the animal's evening thaws enough to break the interstate, one
      new widow in fever.
For the animal mourns the invention of suburbs, lamb-like in the
      stalls, crickets crushed between bales.

Tweet

Copyright © 2014 Joshua Poteat All rights reserved
from For the Animal
New Michigan Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission