The flesh of Earth was sick today
And did not rise from sleep,
Summer forests drained to gray,
The oceans black and deep

Sleepers did not wake from dreams
Nor flowerings unfold,
Desiccated lay the streams,
Blood and flesh were cold

Who will raise my corpse to life
And…

Wash your hands in morning snow
Before the scars of earth have scored
The skin of it with iron plows,
Trampled, fouled and ignored

Weightless when it falls and stark,
Soundless in enormity,
Numberless, a jeweler's work,
Intricate severity

Melted in the human hand
A phase transition makes it…

She was looking for something to save her from death
Or at least to put obstacles under his feet,
Keep him from rising to conquer her breath,
Smother her heartbeat, the merciless thief

Perhaps if she filled up the room with…

Within the old fort, in the woods overgrown
Near the mound where they buried the magazine
To store their cruel iron a thicket grows —
A young doe naps in the afternoon

Behind the green leaves her rough bed hides
And…

Darkling beetle, black and shining jewel,
What jeweler could have formed you, with what tool?
What burr or jig or pliers set your shape,
On what suspended rod your armor draped,
On which round mold your head and thorax bent,…

The one who falls, is falling reaches for me,
The weakened hand grips tightly as it can,
That which pulls her backwards grips her firmly,
Down into the blackness of the wound

Desiccated blood, not salt, it does not weep —…

I thought about the city precinct house
Where fierce corrupt detectives in white shirts
And ties enforced the scared obedience Of those who lived around them in apartments

Prisoners were beaten on the street
Before they even entered to be booked,
And if…

What do I know about conversion? Twenty years ago I walked into the Jesuit dining room at Georgetown University and accosted a startled priest, Fr. Dave Wessels, with the announcement that I wanted to talk about Catholicism. I'd been involved…