AnnMarie Eldon

Intrusion

Forget the previous festives. The year begins with terror.
There is a gas impediment atop the ramparts of the kind
modernity proclaims too weak for suicide. Yet she would
snort it down her nostrils and torch carpets. It was always
her. The curvature of a sign, perhaps a taunt, predicated
upon drink times. How this strongholds the cleaning up
of present. There may be other wisps. Forest suggestions
for instance. Mournful weak westerlies. Cobwebs. A
dewdrop upon a bird's beak. Outside-this unvenomous
respite requiring no exactitude. A lover's redress. But
these lost in the clean-up haunt. All must be presentable.
She is coming back in five minutes. A threat list: hands,
crumbs, creases, any-use detritus. The smile steady
portrait squats behind steep. Here comes her feign-lipstick
stench to trammel the scorch parade. A nicotined rictus
and she is ever present as a weak dawn highlights chores.
There is nothing tenuous. Anything dirty heralds her
perfection. I lick. Mother ready. She appears within
a doorway, lights a cigarette. Stalks the night peace
more than half a century later. To test the chains
around the keep.

the warrior-apices

you got down upon your knees and began to count your strategies ababa a-grain-of-sand ahaha dust-specks-in-a-sunbeam nirabbuda rabbit's-grain abbuda ram's-grain vibhutangama ox's-grain sarvajna poppy-seed bindu mustard-seed sarvabala barleycorn mudrabala rabbit-egg niravadya sheep-egg akkhobini ox-egg gananagati eggs-in-a-basket samaptalambha eggs-upon-a-roof hetvindriya eggs-within-a-cloud ninnahuta clouds-within-a-sky hetuhila skies-upon-a turtle-back vyavasthanapajnapati black-wishes-squashed-by-white titlambha white-wishes-upon-a-grain-of-sand nahuta sand-upon-gratuitous-compassion nagabala compassion-upon-loneliness bahula tears-cried-in-loneliness kotippakoti holiness-upon-tears vivaha a-palmful-of-holiness kshobhya prayer-unspoken vivara prayer-upon-a grain-of wickedness pakoti wickedness-upon-a-grain-of-sand kankara homeland niyuta heaven-in-a-sunbeam ayuta the-all-inclusiveness-of-and koti and placed a finger-and-thumbful of spittle upon each grazed knee through torn cloth and stood and went about your daily business