i. LARK HUNT

daybreak – the kingfisher sings me sisterhood

kindly as he can bear; equinox carols break

on the shore. there’s a voice in my head

that says

surrender your human heart and 

make a widow 

of our god — 

it falls silent when I weep,

balks at the sight of salt in the water. I am winged

and hollowed, I tell it, my rage a wretch 

on my tongue. 

the sun is not the sun but a star; 

laugh with me at the horror of it all, 

hand in pitiless hand.

ii. DEAD DOVE

the sky lies 

open and bleeding on a demon’s tongue:

we break and we mend and we break

by whim. there are no mothers left

who can tell me what to do with 

all of this fury, how to storm a castle

and burn it to the ground. the monsters

are in your head and in the clouds, disarmed

and eating worlds. 

come now, hero,

dragon-tamer, queen-killer

aren’t we all hopeless romantics?

don’t these violent delights 

have violent ends? 

listen, listen – you broke me first, 

so stitch me back together before I break you too. 

iii. GLASS KITE

some nights I dream of crimson

and gold, dusky pearls scattered

on the horizon, stained windows 

blotting out the sunlight

– some nights I wonder how long 

it would take me to tear it all apart

how far we could go, playing pretend, 

dancing under a howling sky.

waltz with me, fall with me,

white out the pain so I can’t remember

to mourn all the things we left behind;

in my sleep I unwind the moons 

and devour a distant dawn, 

the god of an ailing world.