Ghosts without words for the slaughter of animals
a flock of bobolinks in cumulative ranges
over the sky. We bless what we cannot forgive.
A body drawn out of the river
is hunger in another form for eagles. The clothes
on the body has stains of petrichor.
All matter holds atoms that perish into taxidermy.
An aperture in the outline. A conduit.
We draw an aerial map of the territory surrounding
the river. Ghosts glide over elderberry
plants while a body is turned over the back.
Eulogy is a whimper into the shadows
of an eclipse. The river flows into a sea, into ocean.
Ghosts float over marsh light as the
body is carried into a cemetery, through the steep
meadow, into vast fields. Wind unlatches
a closed window. We hold a thimbleful pail of
water to make our hands holy
embodiments. The body forgone without
a funeral. The river slumbers
in an anatomy of dusk. Ghosts sing through
the throat of a body with lidocaine
consciousness. An eternal unfound sunspot.
Body of an eclipsed hymn.
