than even the complexity of the shadow, dragging
my own darkness behind & beside me
on a day I do not want to get out of bed I lift
an arm & darkness expands on a white wall
a wound sealing itself over the promise of moonlight
& this is how I remind myself I am not dead
yet
even in stillness I am a straight line projected somewhere beyond
myself raised gently into the dwindling brightness a casket waiting
to be swallowed but it isn’t all bad
have you considered your own loneliness is simply a lack of imagination
a child is crying on a plane, devastated by the volume & velocity
that leaving and returning requires
a man lifts his window & makes his hands into what the shadow
translates into a bird its wings flapping slowly along the airplane’s side
& the child sighs with the sweetness of disbelief
there is a bird in my backyard & it is dead in an unremarkable way
storm or electricity or hunger
I reach my palm toward the light & my shadow holds the dead
in the darkness I make I apologize for a world that could not keep you safe
I apologize for the white wall & all I’ve asked it to forget & re-learn
but now we’re talking about eternity & I prefer a god who makes no promises
beyond the one that says at the end of it all there will be a shovel
& someone
will have to do the digging.