carrying time on your wrist and pebbles in your shoes
tasting that responsorial psalm
fingernails bubbling from infection
rubbing your bones together to make fire
creeping through wax and war
mountains swaddling themselves between dewy clouds
and the dimples on your teeth and hands
slouching home through the dark heat
dust devils muffling traffic
unzipping yourself to forge fire opals
bruising your legs in your sleep
sitting so quietly birds settle on the feeder
constantly licking dust from the corners of your mouth
and finding fat asparagus in the shade of a grey fencepost.