september

suspended

in the lawlessness

of the ungovernable intervals

between distance and pleasantry:

i am hungry, please speak

unbridled, of your day —

are you lonely, rinsed in blue?

are you seen? 

they paved the basin

where the swallowtails danced

before i could tell you 

i'm entangled in bloodroot

and mayapple on Sundays. 

studying the migratory patterns

of hymnals and groceries,

carving a place out for the laugh

that's a ghost in the trees.

what did He say to you

when it stopped hurting?

what will He say to me

when i show again my face?

last time we spoke He said Esau,

in all his weeping,

could not undo

the passage of his blessing.

have i missed you in all

my locomotive forbearance?

in heart-death and riddle and thought-crime?

are you seen?

salt me, and send me

out on His way:

they will know you

by your fruit.