{"id":1012,"date":"2024-07-31T21:10:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T02:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2024-08-03T23:15:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-04T04:15:14","slug":"willows-below","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/2024\/07\/willows-below\/","title":{"rendered":"Willows Below"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

1.<\/span><\/p>\n

we, clouded with error<\/span><\/p>\n

create from the language of breath<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

an earth, murked without\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

wisdom but the reaching<\/span><\/p>\n

of so many hands – they curl,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

emptied between each finger,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and even the dirt does not\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

stay for long<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

what else have we failed? The\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

human forest, mutilated and\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

forgettable as the waters we stare\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

into, briefly, through childhood<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0attempting to pin something\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

like an insect<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 to memory<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

but they slip, all things slip\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and I do not even know to\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

grab them<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 from the soil\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

again<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

so they rot there, lonely as I – as we<\/span><\/p>\n

who disparage and lose all are –<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the roots scrape over our\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0absence, we are eaten for\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0love<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the wolves are tamed\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

there is no more song<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2013what were you saying?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2.<\/span><\/p>\n

it has been so long, Eros<\/span><\/p>\n

if you came here now, would I recognize you?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the bells withdraw into dawn like so many stars wilting over the<\/span><\/p>\n

dissection of flowers, the splintering spirit, the despairing disguise<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

here marks the lover\u2019s dying gaze – who could turn from this horror?<\/span><\/p>\n

many times it happened, gain and loss, the inevitable exchange<\/span><\/p>\n

of isolation<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and so it will continue, like the crunching of bones beneath a dragon\u2019s<\/span><\/p>\n

great feet, the dead smell of sun on woodlands, the absent tenderness<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

of a ship\u2019s stiff sail pulled on by no wind, so sitting, listless and<\/span><\/p>\n

maimed by its own still reflection, erroneous as my breathing<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the dream wilts below the heat of its chainmail, with the skull\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

removed, the flux that flows is like that of a once-hidden wound<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wait and wait, never truly dispelling my want for someone to look\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

in and see, but acceptance, pulsing somewhere, is strange to me<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and only doubts are left to accumulate – do the dead tire of lilies?<\/span><\/p>\n

passions, various, leave me; against my wishes, the light was never <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 kind<\/span><\/p>\n

but somewhere, the sea churns, the earth, like a beast, slinks onward<\/span><\/p>\n

along the great plummeting brow of an indifferent universe and<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

all my bundled hopes, neat as the folded wings of an unsent letter,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

root their day-blanched thoughts to dirt and carry away rumors<\/span><\/p>\n

of me, somewhere, to be known<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3.<\/span><\/p>\n

april comes, her arms molded with the longings of magnolia\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the animal secludes itself, a single throat, and so whispers into\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the dark: I have witnessed eternity<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

where I have gone, I have gone alone – there is no one to cast<\/span><\/p>\n

pity on the stony palm of all my errors or know how each smudge of <\/span><\/p>\n

dusk expends itself like a heart for nothing<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

no dreams, no agelessness, nothing for the world to remember\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

when did I ever cast a shadow? when did I know a thing that did\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

not prove itself to be false? the footsteps, love\u2019s lure<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

that embittered itself – again and again – on the landscape of a window <\/span><\/p>\n

never looking out; this is my singular belonging, this room, this color <\/span><\/p>\n

the ghosts that come and go, watching me flail from life to life<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the woods speak, the sky\u2019s infinite armament disarms itself,<\/span><\/p>\n

the earth is sickened with what the impossible seems to promise\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

spring, you come,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

but my Eye is shut<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    the constellations, weary with what they\u2019ve seen\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    collapse in the pulse of all<\/span><\/p>\n

    that is not here<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    dark, the cloven hoof<\/span><\/p>\n

    black the spread of crocus like disease<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    I have been past<\/span><\/p>\n

    what you hear in the final chamber<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    I know the hollow throat of a door\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    that can only rasp itself<\/span><\/p>\n

    closed<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    there are riddles in the ribbon that yawns\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    itself into puddles of sunlight on the floor,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    each animal despairs of them<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    the traps are set, the ankle is weak\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    where I go I go alone and into\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    every disclosure<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    pale peony,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    I obscured<\/span><\/p>\n

    by the sound\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    of rain<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    what comes after\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    sorrow? you leaf through<\/span><\/p>\n

    me like an<\/span><\/p>\n

    animal body<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    I burn yellow with the\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    hot, restless empire<\/span><\/p>\n

    of eternity\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    each grief<\/span><\/p>\n

    disembodied, how\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    to whittle out from\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    the paper souls a\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    hope for more?<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      somewhere, I am loved but the black\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      leaves pool in and cloud the promise<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      it is a form of suffering: the body\u2019s defacement\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      into armor, the unsent letters piled on the field\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      like so many dead<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      geese pushing out from the marsh\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      into lands forever beyond me<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      like grief, the season burns, I have been theft<\/span><\/p>\n

      of a name easily called or remembered the rot of\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      intimacy,<\/span><\/p>\n

      \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0do you remember the spires we touched\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      while the moon still bred tenderness?<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      like all else, I question\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      the fruits I carry home<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      they slip from my arms and\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      I grow old<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        1. we, clouded with error create from the language of breath   an earth, murked without\u00a0 wisdom but the reaching of so many hands<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1557,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}