In foras
I
Brook Trout
In this stream once swam the brook trout
On their backs a map of the world
In its becoming water
Flow no more
Melting of snow
Only in spring, of long ago
Only ashes cover the ground
There is no return
From the path we have chosen to walk
II
In this Rotting Light
A hum in your ears
Snapping at your heels
Towards the ache of absence
Overturn the stones with searching steps
Gathering the empty husks
Seeds that found no soil
Take the dew drop on your swollen tongue
The last of the flesh from the carrion bone
‘Neath thick black smoke, a crimson sun
Stalked as you hunt through a maze of graves
The gravity of growing doubt
The impetus of homesickness
In this rotting light
Darkness wouldn’t be the worst state
To cleanse and renew
Suture the wound
III
Decay this Place
Trace the land, wild moor
Out to sea, muddy shores
Moss and stones, serpent holes
Caught the hare
Skin, flesh and bone
To the ragged highest peaks
Pine, juniper carve out the steeps
From the canyon to the well
Carry it through the hills
Water sinking through the ground
Not a word but a sunken sound
And it came from the highest towns
Speckles shining
In the stream and in the creeks
Withered eyes, silent shrieks
Charred in a fractured whole
Swallow the stars
By the shadows of the moon
Engulfing in a solemn doom
Stories engraved
Buildings will fade
Through the cracks of time
All that break the bonds that hold the binds
The wind, the tides, the forest floor
Decay this place, take back what’s yours
IV
Veritas Avertis
Gasp the last of your tired breath
Fall the last of your wings, dust
Down from the moonlit sky
Into a pool of starlight
Came to, living in some hollowed branches
Flight was whispers
Sinking towards the falling night
Eyes that wandered
Owls that whipped the air with fright
Shadows from a vacant moon dance in the sky
Leaves that wither, reaching the ground
Tumble slowly, breeze they found
Wisp away your falling fear
Greet it cautiously, its near
Came to, looking in the sallow eyes
Waterlogged
Approaching ships that anchor by
Salt and sand, mixed with water withered tongues
Cast out to sea the wayward lives of the armada
I saw the river rise
I saw the sky on fire
V
Rot of the stars
The opal milk of dusk
Spilled across the shore
Swimming past the edge of day
The sea carves new veins
Fur slips from my hide
The tide licks my skin
Pull the sinew from my back
Sew me back in
A nest of my hair
A home in the storm
The rot of the stars
The unraveling of the sky
The light of the dark
The ripening liminal
A home in the storm
VI
Frozen Fields
Broke down, with your head hanging low
Falling faster and deeper than the water knows
Dark shadows in your hands
Like crows flying out to land they do not know
Darkness beside the brokenness lasts longer
than the frozen fields and the air I miss
Cast aside the breaking dawn of aching minds
and your lives you held on to, you did not know until you lose
Even the land recalls the gasping of our lives take leaving
Even the cities fall with time and air that’s escaping our lungs as we leave
Left to our own devices
Is it war or rolling dice?
It’s down in the depths
Lying to your own reflection
Is it myth or some deception?
Down in the depths
Take my body to the last living place you found in the cracks
In the pavement on the ground
Broken pieces of where we have been
Shattered like the frozen fields that cracked from seeds within
When what all you had was left out in the snow
Sun that melts the ice and we would watch it go
VII
10 of Swords
Its faint and smothered
There is hate in your gaze
A light that makes me stay
Another illusory day
I followed you to the winds favorite place
The spines tore at our skin
A Line I traced
From the stars to your belly
I asked for a path from the dust blowing by
You don’t look into me,
you look through
For something
A cup overflowing, an ocean swelling
Shadows stirrings, jaws widening
10 swords aimed at you
I prayed from an exception
Got a crack in the wheel
I loosened my grip
And the rope burned my hands
I followed you to that empty den
I rolled up my sleeves and emptied my veins
The last of their mud
I ask for a blade and cut the cord
You don’t look into me
You look through for something
A cup overflowing, an ocean swelling
Shadows stirring, jaws widening
10 swords aimed at you
VIII
Wolves and Caribou
Wading out beyond the shore
Across the sea I leave them
Ignite the sky from dusk till light
Rising up to meet them
Waiting for to ride the wind
Catch a breath, begin again
Braiding strands with swollen hands
Weaving threads of silver sand
Against the body of the waves
It narrows than it feeds
Waves take what’s in my hands
I offer you the sea
We run over passes, rocky scapes, woods and lakes
And a lone alibi, terrified that I no longer could try
The sun was out of the east
The light had released
And the howling had ceased
And the night was as grim as my dreams
I opened my eyes
And witnessed the scene
Heading out on a winter’s day
Hid in plain sight and slipped away
We ran out of chances
the storm had arrived, and we were inside the eye
Death shape shifter, undertaker
Wax and wane
Willow and cane
Water and drain
Like mountain and plain
Dusk and dawn
Buck and fawn
Weaving threads
Like spiders and webs
BYSSUS 