Tell me how it came you the zipper me
racing through your teeth a shattered costume
on the ground the crystal swinging
above my hand
Tell me how
you the dough mine the hand
that pounded
and pounded so you would never rise again
the meal
without bread
the shoulder
without cloth
Tell me how it happened you the throat
me the necklace a perfect fit
but for the air
and the gasps
were words
as I shook you
with the question
Tell me
how it happened History you gasped buried
amnesiac your hand
I drank the wine the carpet
bloody I drank it
When they came dressed in all one cloth history
you gasped I can’t breathe your history
They heard it She fell I said
We drank wine
watched the rising waters from the window
She had a weapon I said Of course
they said She fell she wanted
to die and the evening
is getting on
They left you didn’t want to muddy
the carpet with their boots
that knew the rising waters
the clay ground yielding bones
You were the teeth
and the zipper I ran through
I would be bulldozer
You would be home
I could not settle
The teeth sang on
about breath life history
The uniforms left the world drew
darkness to itself I had never seen
A splendid ebony lit with stars and voices
I lay down in the rising
The earth would flower
and I would be gone
I had moments to do a new thing
could not think of it
I was the teeth
in the ground then always
hungry always dreaming
to devour
But you told with your last breath
as the child watched
and became truth
and comfort
and power
rising undeniable
as the blood
soaking the white
shirt.