fade in from black: a field
of rats running like horses from the slaughter
fire tower hovering heat lines
over the dry hills
the camera quivering in an unseen hand
a mouth darkens the lens—
–
anyone can be inside anyone else—
I mean this in the way of the body:
the plumbing past its hard rind
to a center that can be divided & divided
a testament to ruin: a girl is born a corpse
& spends her life walking backwards into her body
or a girl is born a body
& walks steadily into the frame of her own burning
she is complete when the edges
falter & meet
–
when I said I feel like a ruin
you said I know I ruined you
–
when I close my eyes I see
no darkness but your face
Snake River splitting the landscape
in two & one gash of earth is me & one is you
juniper choking out the sagebrush
bright ring of barren soil around every dying thing
–
I whisper your name in bed enough times
& my body becomes it:
just a raw keening in the blue night
I’d cut myself open if I knew
you would bow your head & drink
I’d turn up the static on the car stereo
if I thought it’d make you sing
medusahead rye grass overtakes the shot
lone arm gesturing back to the gorge
the camera pans back shakes a little
goes dark once more
–
before you my queasy little body
hallucination in a shock of dusty light
red-tailed hawk at the neck of a dead deer
I tell the story over & over again
until neither of us knows who is inside the other
–
blue delphinium red paintbrush
blood & juniper the fire
coming for the fields
