Unsettled
who tell me who
is whole
not holy
but in fear of god wholly still
every power must starve
some people or other
so everybody fears invasion
by rain or quiet
Anxious poems
Anxious poems — a collection of the best works on PoemShip.
Comfortable
my people with me
and my house so clean
only I lack
somebody to sing with
and war cannot be
far off
Vigilant
two in the morning
a moon lighter than ice
I eat a piece of cold meat
dust the picture in the corner
like a cat taken out of a chimney alive
I watch all night for the sun
Poachers
whichever king or malefactor
kills a wild elephant
they take his life
like a never-heard river
an ungoing
ungrown narrative
of a thing they do in the sticks
when the war is all here
holding us
Pinched
I slept backward
in a thin framed self
my hand bled
my book and table continued
all night to exceed me
my bed laden
as a full mouth
what would we give
for good news
for the poor
Improvisational
in the dead town
and all the infected places
I make words out of
other times and doors
other discourse and hubbub
other wonder
and the same
reproaching quiet
Rush hour
inching to town
all of us
into the lush body
of tumult
Self-inflicted
noon turning into a bruise
I have given myself
thin as thunder
or the fear of so much quiet
Open handed
in my hands the world
of a beggar who is all alone
and no less than one thousand
people in the street
I fear every day more and more
the state answering the question
who is it that the weight
of the war depends on
a man betrayed to the sea
for security’s sake
let me be godfather to a swan
and steal a kiss of the night
Give a little whistle
a shot bullet
pretends to sing
a consternation of birds
Unequal
morning clear as a hell
a mother weary of war
cries to be removed to some
other yard
the newsman is bringing
a shovel and wheelbarrow
Discharged
our water grew better by night
thin and harmlessly sad
my book on mortality hit back
I was living in the dangerous part of town
I bled hope to ease myself
like a bed full of guns
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