I know to stand still when lost
to observe the trees the city
the space alive around me
until the silence I am returns
and all I have said and done
vanishes with the panic inlaid
along my spine like the airless
moment after a mockingbird
stops singing and the forest
holds its damp green breath
I know all this yet I know
I will scold myself for all
I have not remembered to do
like flagellants who once wound
through narrow streets searching
for someone beyond themselves
to solicit a form of forgiveness
to form even a partial acceptance
of what is left to do and say
I know all this and still I know
within the stark world’s snow
each moment vibrates in fear
like a rabbit in the grass
about to leap into being
before the wolf’s fangs flash
shredding the air in anguish
a last red violence to usher
in a reverberant silence
(March 10, 2016)
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