III

over the ground

matter

laid down by

abstract bodies

some known

to us

as mothers

whose giving

now is rendered

ineffable nowhere concrete

like the potential for birth

of children

from concrete wombs

or as fathers recalled but

whose powers

now are decomposed

to bacterial potencies

of future men, women and

all of those clinging to inner

vestments like passengers

hanging off bone-hooks

in the walking, love-making hulks

of a people to come

 

over the ground of stones

world of stones the teeth of

sorting operations

conveyors of scree down vast

mountains to the mouths of valleys

stones carried by water

water the agent

universal solvent

and wind in the silica

sand currents

air movements delicate

pliable lifting one

solitary particle

and convulsions in the rock

springing out of magma

skin-like shreds

a molten blackening surface

from the furnace of creatures

everything burns

 

over the ground of shells

glass smoothed

a plastic anatomy

the husk rubs the placenta

the solid fluid

discrete powder

the soup of life

in the soup of more-than-life

grinding water to atoms

tears lost

all holding-together

passing in

all lasting

loss

 

over the ground

risen I am one

salt grain of all the

ocean of all

tongues one word

on its sky-kissed

cheek swimming

under star scatter

scintillant