How

How a hand that held, hits

How a kind mouth becomes a beast

How a humane face apes

How both Heaven and Hell

How

Night's Stair

On Night’s stair, I look back toward the Light.

Sent away
Without candle
Without her
The worst punishment

And all my apologies on every treacherous step.

"Timshel--thou mayest"

Might with might is missed.

All of Us

All of us eyes
All of us mouths
All of us skin, and hands, and bone, and ears, and blood

And each one to be loved
And love

And each one to be held
And hold

God endlessly echoed

Lent

I lent the Lord my sin
Suspended if not ended
Begin to make amends

But from this fast, fast to
My sins and fast hold
I do not always know

What is good and
What I should
O God

ashes rise too

The Goodbye

No more bodies.
Where is warm?

No more hands.
What do I hold?

No more eyes.
I wish mine weren’t.

No more ears
Without your voice.

I do not want the world
Without you.

It is all sadness
I know Death
If you are gone.

I want no joy
It is a lie
A pretty face
Without yours.

Living Iron

The sky scrapes on concrete, and
The seasons on skyscrapers.

The sun drowns daily in tired wastewater and
Strangers’ unmet eyes.

This wherehouse civilization, made of
Living Iron, all of us

lonely amidst multitudes.