Ab(b)aton

Where no one should step
The hell of the "mind's
own place" to ever be-
lieve in a world behind

The eyes while the eyes
Were open in the dark
Blood expanded as sight
Concentric to which

Love is never grasped
That is only an impulse
Of care or intent thought
Only of what I would

Do with you today the
Fact that I wasn't a vision
Of light drawn from its
Object to any particular

Purpose disturbs me I am
Hell nothing else with-
out you to hold your hand
Or see sound this place

Was a wreck with us where
Light must begin night
When black light resolved
My objective withdrawal

Little bells seized his
Ears animals taught him to
Hear the law like prophets
Beginning again to see.

X|O (For)

~ for Emilie & Michael

The wrecks and the lives
never wrecked if not
for love a body blossoms
into it and is strangest

in this duration which
is it that moves every
one the balloon floating
in the train car today

reflects this flabby ho-
liday distorting and
wrinkled where a pattern
spells "xo" "xo" "xo"

somehow there was still
a locus for loving you
other things ineffable
done if only in time this

breath's shipwreck that
mourning may be our
joy afterall a friend wrote
to me writing *myself*

back into being that
'hollow ego' [Oppen] tears
shatter the numinous
no one has yet to kiss.