may never
walk again

something
with the nerves
they say

perhaps 
the spine
suffered
some trauma

whimpering
occasionally

she sleeps 
until they
come for her

again
the nose
flares

forelimbs
scrabbling
dreamt
earth
 

*
 

the crying
goes on
and on

it might
be comforted
by some
attention

relief for
hunger
thirst

the warmth
scents
sounds
of a familiar
body

for lack 
of these
uninterrupted
simply
it continues
on and
on
 

*

crack
thundifferentiated
to an interlock
of vaults
boxes
rooms

rivers
their
walls

stone
furniture
stone 
air

diviners
sense
the strike
or dip 

when over
charged
a perched
table pitches

afflicting
property

overwhelming
thirst
 

*
 

successively
each emperor's
doubles were 
assassinated

then
himself

therefore
this stratagem

our latest
emperor
was chosen
secretly

no-one 
informed
not even
the elect

it worked

somewhere
he lives
obscurely
on

quite 
unaware
he is
a god
 

*
 

court
tombs
constitute
our earliest
examples

local sites
exhibit small
side chambers

transepted
galleries

only the
largest
slabs
remain

fallen
displaced

smaller stones
purloined for
nearby walls
or roadworks

the ideal form
exists
in imagination
only
 

*
 

they found
a bucket
filled
with tears

now they demand
whose property
is this

who so
decries
their state

no need
they say
not now

so why this
weeping
without owner
function
future
why these tears?
 

*
 

in answer
the child
is told
heaven
is furnished
with wonders
never seen on earth

without the least
trace
of the familiar

a sun
that barks?
fists
of clenched
water?
blonde
plaited
hearts?

no! all
too stale

absence
of contestation
 

*
 

hollowing
out the
darkness

nesting
there

sheeted in
with glass
wood lead

and with gold
or silver
skins

bookbinders
endpapers

or fabric
for matting

are still lifes 
memories
gardens

listen

uncertain
steps return
always at
night
 

*
 

pot-bellied
thread-throttled
vomit-eaters
turd-lickers
void-pickers
vapour-swallowers
law-gobblers
water-slurpers
high-hopers
tip-topplers
spittle-hoovers
wig-eaters
blood-sippers
carnivores
smoke-sniffers
pus-dabblers
shit-twitchers
subterraneans
wonder-junkies
flare-burners
colour-fanciers
beach-bums
basket-cases
infant-eaters
cum-suckers
demoniacs
pyrophages
street-filth
wind-snackers
scald-tasters
toxin-takers
meadow-dwellers
ash-eating-tomb-trash
twig-perchers
street-corner-snorters
suicides
 

*

even though
you sketch
the structure
beforehand

even after all
childhood
spent aloft
or dreaming
outbursts
of limbs

branching
surprises

and always
from the highest
twig
the redbreast
calls you
sweetly
up
 

*
 

they laid
them
regular
in rows

they brought
the worst
to tents

where skilled
men lopped
off what was
judged
unserviceable

a wagon
stood
behind

weighted with
superfluous
extremities

the legs
were shod
and stockinged
still