Nine Turns

1. Difficult to have seen
The remembered
Deleterious pit.

2. On tomb roads
I have watched
The ludicrous
Pluck Misery’s lyre.

3. Therein, with Ruben’s care-
lessness, the corpse turned back
To gain a glimpse of bound Pro-
metheus, dragging a rhinoceros.

4. Stiff, subcutaneous man
When will you punch out
From the fallen clock
In which the rook sounds?

5. This is the river called Styx
On which every starry tomb
Verily drifts toward the stockyard

  of (*Ja*) the spirit.

6. Don’t you feel your soul floating–
That dirty, dirty, miraculous bag
Wherein all your life’s produce
(secrets & all) hath spoiled?

7. Why do I writhe (write)
Like this mouse set free
Of my own kitchen’s trap?

8 The oven in which I am
A ghost again, rising–

9 And yes. I know what I am still
Still missing, down to
The bloody twigs.