Bodies at Daybreak

[Stan]

Bodies at Daybreak 

The moon, daylit, 
Drawn down, as dyeing goose down, bleeds, 
Sheet-thin, crumbling, 
Cool flax of light, 
Blotted blue by a deluge through a dawn-flooded artery.
 

My chest, in plum, plumes,  rushed, 
Ruffed as the rock dove's breast, 
       In the wind, 
The odd cuticle of sleet, 
      And unsprung March draughts ruffle, 
The ventricles of my feet. 


The toad, breathless skin, 
Shed, nape-led, heaved, 
     Copper back, 
Coin belly-dwelling,
Voice wrung, 
Nightlong, wheezed.


And, 
The mammal combs, 
Brooding, 
Behind sickle-slitted glaze, 
      Votive bones, 
Through broken roots, 
And dewy marks my ankles make.