Phantoms. Everywhere, the ocean
fills the frothy absences. Indentations
Of youth-sprayed pebbles
Dissolve in the shore.
They were canvas damp, written
In bone-font along the beaches—a mouse
in a shoulder boat gnawed
wire text ligaments:
Ever born, summer true.
Neptune’s leafy limbs, lighthouses
Of wintery cigarettes. Mephistopheles,
take Faust.
*
Sun trick negotiation, bowls
For the knees, ask
About his mother, we all have
Mothers setting plates
In sequence—spoon, napkin,
Salt, university, knives affixed
To the don’t-eye-this machine
*
On gigantic days, prose
Becomes polished onyx. Arms, secret
Arms hold tightly the talk of
Divergent Homecoming
With orange-green jazz sardines
Sweet in hard times
*
The eye battle riddles, whoisthis
Point, declare, photograph
Return to the Carolinas, torn and pasted
In our family anthology of foreign scenery,
They without body, and Faustus
Combing the sand for light.
