pulled from the depths of mire
by contractions and gloved hands
we emerge to brightness and uncertainty
a disruption of the stagnancy that reigns
over a plain populated with thin trees
like crooked cribposts or ancient tombstones
lining the shores to watery wounds
from a wanton glacier’s thrust
that moved like we moved, crawled, staggered
the first steps we took away from repose
we learned to laugh and slough it all off
old library books, newspapers, birthday cards,
unmailed letters, hoarded cans of tea
steeped in hospital bands and concert ticket stubs,
crumbling dried flowers and herbs
and the friction of day and night
grown thick on neglected surfaces
until the only things we have left
are thinned skin and lucid whispers
