Market at night
the vegetables pull back and the lights netted overhead
in thin waves stutter on
the alleys choke: arms and legs all look the same
in flailing, even Americans on taglit
I like to watch here;
mouths move and it’s a release to not understand
stay behind my roommates as they push
don’t mind being shoved like they do
but when things constrict I lose them
back into something hard and someone backs into me and I’m stuck to
a stiffness forced against the triangle space
between ass and thighs and lower back
twist to see the soldier behind me
up close his face is veined like a scallop
somehow holographic—something I could put a finger through
and not lose the tip
he flickered as I looked but
didn’t pull back his gun
the crowd released
I walked stiff away, unstuck my dress
sat down in front of the world cup
felt myself damp on the metal chair
and reached for a beer
Night moves
dreams moved over me at night
fat birds, circling
alone in a desert-scape
without edges or sun
lit by a constant beaming from an invisible plug
I see a group of men walking to me
tarred in olive oil and feathered in sand
I smell it; see the dull shimmer
fat and insolence in a sick dredge
but they fall as they come
bodies frothing on the land
disembodied legs of a crushed insect, kicking
I watch them until everything goes still again
the light doesn’t flicker
wake up flat backed
teeth ground into flour
mouth gummy with it: spit and dust
into white bread
I swallow
Valley of dry bones
He said to me,
“O mortal, can these bones live again?”
I replied,
“O Lord God, only You know
something unthinkable about my own skin
a wrap; a shell to be broken
crack this yolk to watch it ooze
and curdle in the heat
but instead—fall asleep
listening to voices in the hallway
Thus said the Lord God to these bones:
“I will cause breath to enter you
and you shall live again
hair gathers in delicate tumbleweeds—
yellow reminder of regeneration;
a honey sludge for the starving to adore
I drag a brush over my scalp
and no longer gather what falls
I will lay sinews upon you,
and cover you with flesh,
and form skin over you
take a nighttime walk
a metal distaste in back of my throat
teeth: blood diamonds
watch trees hung with faces
twitch oblong in the breeze
Thus said the Lord God:
“Come, O breath, from the four winds,
and breathe into these slain,
that they may live again
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