viral—communion + benediction

turn of darkness eating its tail
the whisper of black hole total pull
cosmic flush and strobe 

stanzas are powerless, but motor hard

destiny’s choreography demands oblivion 

grave lockstep at the eternal shut door 

in el paso del norte a false star glares

a real mountain—autobiography of earth

this land is intimate with joy and plague

when it rains in cd juarez it rains here

sky like soul heeds no borders

soil like body will exhaust and submit

viruses too lack respect for imaginary lines

elemental hope and terror both defy language 

the first time we made love in a pandemic

it wasn’t less transcendent than usual or more

which is to say—it was utterly transcendent 

nights we’re watching star wars with Emerson 

she wonders at the dark side of the force

i’m happy we haven’t taught her religion

troubled that she’s had to learn oppositionally

there’s a universe in any regular home

it’s not that far from here to infinity really

this same storm ever rages creates & destroys

having not a single worry about the economy 

there’s still the hungry and the oppressed 

death doesn’t care if you can count to a billion

no point living if life’s split into mine and yours

can you still hear the music from this prison?

i guess rapunzel’s tower must’ve had a stellar view

the bright side is best seen in dark places

it’s just that there’s stubborn light in everyone 

and there’s space here for what we’ll be next

unimagining us since animal innocence

counterpointing the lie of competition—hope 

unfastening the spirit from the passion of stuff

mending all the fascist bruises and the blues

to dance like wild children—physical and free

entranced to deliver the plenty to the many 

that’s got to be something worth catching 

while we run from prison in a spreadsheet

from being counted and labeled into shame

obviously a stuck fool trusts a prevailing wind 

a bully reads the stars from his pocket knife

lost to a sharp science gleaning via explosion 

or there’s the ignorance of the chosen cowboy

forever roiling like the universe he can’t forgive 

a giant sadness that grows from small fear(s)

best wishes for expropriation with love xoxoxo

proletarian dictatorship and all that—until

we might drown the dictatorship in our hearts

be serious about never being serious again—

having to labor and fret over maybe mattering

was never a way to live