“Kindly Ones”
The darling young starling marks
her glass eye
we drowned in the chandelier, looking on
the bullseye marks
the doorknob growing further away
into your thigh-light eyes,
wish we’d met
a blind capsule
a rose, a Sharon
a dimple pressed on sheets
makes a goat neigh
a swan wearing tap shoes
scrambles up a sandy bank
a gift from a friend
however you use this tissue
of the sunken depths
lead no unicorn or lichen
through unfortunate schools
relaxing their grip, but taxis turn
photos fool no proof
for the goat-herder’s daughter
beneath buttercups
the nail worms thrash
palm trees moisten the soda trees to ash
the fruit of havens, hairy and burnt
ballast spells a missing thunderbolt.
nicholauspatnaude 