A Line Through October

from "A Line Through October"


what binds the day
to belief, what binds 
belief to perception, 
at the seam 

between seasons 
when words blur, phrases 
warp, the sentence
surrounding us dissolves


*

candles voice 
evening, these
shadows phrased
across the wall,

this exile, 
in the cell where 
I breathe 
myself blank


*


other echoes inhabit 
the alley, summer’s alley,
enclosed now by October’s
gloaming, the bled sky

gaping above
lopsided sheds
sheathed in yellow 
hollowing orange 


*


from a caved-in 
photocopy shop
sparrows cast a crooked line
on their way to invoke 

other omens—
a month of omens
looming 
in each color-ticked margin