After Emptiness

BecauseI will never have a daughter

&my heart is a rusting copper maze

I fold& falter. I only play a one-handed song.

The echoedhorses tell me lies &

my ribs arewishbones. 

I am ahalf-time widow.

The fatesare confusing

in their signs &

the dead bring no news

for weeks. You say, “Youlook like

an artist right now.”Grace

says nothing.

**

37

I have my guises//my crushed porcelain masks//Iknow no other way//my heart in a bag over my shoulder//this strange money//thishell money//this danger money//money can’tbuy me love//money can’t buy me anything at all

**

38

by thecurve of the cat’s ear//we laser, hide & haze//we ask if birds have ghosts—what they must do to earnthem//& I wonder: //when should a thing not be mended?

**

39

when all ofGod’s prophecies//are wrong; when he needs his own oracle—//the dead willbring gifts://spells & concubines;//rooms full with switchblade lovers//this yellow morning, //I amfull//with too much June