FRIEDRICH KERKSIECK & AARON JAMES MCNALLY

[I saw a weapon on the television]

[There are days when your mouth]

I saw a weapon on the television,

two stones with a rope tied between

them to snare the enemy & knock

it cold. I took twine & two crows

& when I sighted my ex-wife

I twirled & threw, but she

just laughed as the birds

flew up. Tonight I fear

what those birds have planned

for the moon.

There are days when your mouth

is a wound that won’t close,

& every hour is an hour

teeth will sound as coins

in the well.

Every portrait I have of you

is swollen, the dark clouds

of exposed film –

I remember you as the features

of distended storms are remembered –

& any face can be shifted

into form from the contours

of that continuously yawing fiber.

Your split lip is knitting

as we speak.