Quartet [May 2010]

1.
stark pictures
fleeting snapshots
in the crevices of my
brain
i cannot draw them into being
so i try
approximating
with words.

2.
keeling
keening
shadows playing stark and hard
lines on muscle, bone, skin outlines
curving spine
scream

3.
you
are
beautiful
from the clean line of your jaw
and wolf-lean frame
to the scars and softness
of the deep places
between skin and soul

4.
he was not quite fragile
just hollow
bruised
all his life and strength and
power
balled up, coiled carefully
placed in a safe secret hollow
in his core
and locked away
against this
bleakness