I

After the double party 
for the poorly loved 

when the gleam in the hound's eye 
fell like glass rain on the south 

lawn of the countergarden, when 
the image of false flags sank 

in the mirrored plaques, 
when the mirrored plaques 

had been passed in, they took 
your days and gave them back, 

before you unsnapped first 
the crenellated shoulder wings 

then the fumbling then the little 
ankle wings and sent them back 

to the wing patrol, in the box, 

in the metal box, in the genital 
mouth of the rose (the open forms 

of the state left so 
undone that you were stranded 

on the nonimperial coast having 
a boat unnamed for you) 

you were free, you were 
having a bout of meaning 

II

A leaf hurried by on its 
side. Of what is knowledge made? 

A season stopped by without your 
noticing, saying, lost file, breath boy; 

the sun had leaked its power 
into things, and all notation had 

become inaccurate suddenly, you'd been trying 
to talk to them from this 

coast, you'd been trying to help 
them in their small groups 

III

Monsters of will and monsters of 
will-lessness confront the garden; a dragon 

crow greets the dusk with its 
prow. Rhyming is a tool of 

friendly desperation. The spirits will return 
though they're not here now. 

IV

Oracles, iron, the misuse of fire 
under the young earth, and this 

business of being infinitely swept up 
in possibility so when you put 

your hand down on something white 
you noticed that detail, punctuated by 

luckless forms. But night had been 
deployed: see-through parts of the moon: 

lace, anima mundi; and weren't there 
two forevers, words and space, between 

which more experience might ride, unremembered?
You were supposed to tell them 

what they'd missed; they'd read your 
logics, your letters. So little space 

between your letters, the words couldn't 
easily air themselves. Remember going back 

and forth between the rooms? Blue, 
green; the wings had been adjusted. 

You were meant to take black 
netting off a face or two. Take 

something. Passion brought you 
here; passion will save you.