Outer darkness

 

 

                                                        looks like a liar inside

                                   

 

I learned by heart
that a fold in the brain
                                          woven
           

 

                                         or welded together
                                         in the swale light
                                          where the yeasty Ohio meets
                                         another in fellowship

 

 

              & the vegetation is ranker
              but richer, like a rotting whale
              whose oils survived
              looking
              for the word erstwhile

 

                                                                        in outer darkness

& in easterlies

 

                                                                                  whilst flower again

 

 

while the fold in the brain
                                         not woven

           

                                         or welded together
                                         in the swale light
                                         where the yeasty Ohio meets
                                         another in fellowship

 

           
              & the vegetation is ranker
               but richer, like a rotting whale
               whose oils have survived

 

 

                                                            looks like a liar inside

              which himself looks
              for the word erstwhile

 

 

                                                                        in outer darkness

& in easterlies

1.

Am forced
among the frost
finding there
how many owls
hung themselves this yr
in the forest?

5.

 

that which flows out is effluent elbowroom

on all five sides            until                                                     here come the houses

 

to our countryside
we must say our goodbyes

The month hath thirty days
together           

                       

goatsbeard
gathered just west of us

 

is us

 

one of the reasons      
one goes to the country

 

anyhow

 

is to be there                           
among its unused

 

things

 

a pack of humans                   
thrown together

 

is us

 

lovingly

 

but knowing
not         

         

how to do it

 

we kept at it
and we keep

 

it

 

close

 

to our differences
in hidden places

 

like all old houses

 

it

 

had trap doors and secret passageways

 

leading

 

from above the garage
to the basement without

 

setting a foot                          
inside proper

 

looting one’s own home

 

is worse
but its arresting

 

interesting what remains         
for you to see

 

when its blown down
and the safe place

 

is staged
a writing not proven

 

not willing to be
an estate

 

or anything like

 

it

 

its ligaments loosened
before its walls

 

fell
how that evokes trees

 

and birthing

 

cutting down
wood for heat

 

when really
what’s buried

 

is

 

not unlike
the objects dropped

 

in large clay pots
when no one’s looking

 

those I tried to fish out
of small spouts

 

but now someone else’s
problem

 

the new pack
I formed formed

 

by some rotting matter
and by some lovingly trying

 

but not knowing

 

just how