Theories of Violence

                                          too much of our blood is pleading

            alternate refuge for submerge

                                                                        which is muscle unknit

                        a whole other person without prop

                                                most of the body is empty

an unwilling lock

                                                            every doorway capable of closure

                              every bone capable of rupture



 

                                                                       a person is a collocation of strikes

            not of mercies

                        mercies reflected in broken glass

                                                            are by definition wingless

a missing wing reveals the anchor

                        two wings loosed from their bark

                                                                                    form a confessional

                        most of the body held together by breath

lifeline, from birth to indivisibility 

                                    once shattered, shattered

                                                                                    remade, a pox

                                                what is there to trawl

            reflection: a salvage

                                                                        birds rush to unpiece collapse

                                                buzzard, vulture

                        the dove, surprisingly

with urn-like wings