2.11.2022

what bounty then on my name

a girl     buried to the chest 
in red earth         her wrists 
 
bound beneath the soil 
with twine    a crowd gathers 
 
to father her                 its infinite 
hands      curved loosely around 
 
a stone                   small enough 
that no single throw   is named 
 
as cause of death           no single 
hand       accountable to the blood 
 
the girl   undaughter         unnamed 
unfaced         undone from the lineage 
 
her photographs               pulled already 
from bookshelf   from walls    her father 
 
among the hands             his pebble 
streaked with quartz      the first to rise 
 
to carve the air & arc     toward the girl 
the rootless tree          faceless & erect 
 
& perhaps the stones             twisting 
like fireworks                        the girl 
 
their nucleus                   rise    & rise 
for a time                  opposite of rain 
 
opposite of  hail & perhaps the silence 
a beat too long                       & another 
 
another                    & then a rustling 
of  wings                        above the girl 
 
a flock                   thick mixed cloud 
of avifauna          partridge & nightjar 
 
& golden sparrow                  & avocet 
& lapwing               & every other sort 
 
of  plover        & ibis & heron & gulls 
though the sea    is far & to the north 
 
& the minutes pass & the girl is untouched 
& each bird in its beak        tongues a stone
 
• 
 
[what if  i will not die] 
 
[what          will govern me then] 
 
[how         to govern me then] 
 
[what bounty           then            on my name] 
 
[what stone       what rope              what man
 
                                               will be my officer] 
 

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