i could have stepped
out, out
out of this body
this body

this body of water
is naught, and
i : am nacht
a dull glow
in the earth’s shadow

for the price of my hair
and my ground down teeth
i could have been there,
my paracosm
my mind-sick chimera

why
why could i not
why couldn’t i step
out of this body ?
this body of water

am i to toss
in restless waters
for the love
of my enemy?

and to think :

i could have stepped
out, out
out of this body
this body

that body has
eclipsed

i pulled a hair out from the mattress,
and with it came a dreaming girl:
nude-lipped and doe-eyed,
and a murmur four or three flutters-by /

she followed your dogtooth toward Callisto
and a spirit swept across her chest —
and for a while, all that she could feel
was peppermint, and bright, bright white /

now burning thyme stains the bath ;
soaking cactus spines under the nails,
with Jupiter eyes across her shoulders,
you still count the little bones inside her feet /

tulips dust the puzzle
that you’ve left for me /
their violent blue pigment
clouds the insides of my lungs
as i sleep, and so /
in my dream to-night
you will not have left me
for the flowers will have kept you