a decade's ghost
hangs immediate
before my eyes for
some 4 a.m. reason

pulls memories like
breath from my lungs

my lost familiar
tigerstriped & untame
on some plane

on walkabout forever
he waits for my
mind made up

or he finally mauls
us both in a cage
we might've called home

today's brittle edges
flake away follow

ticks through
moments

moments through
hours & i shuffle

ginger through
onionskin pages

of purplebled
typewriter ink
trailing bygone

names through
bygone legalese
leases & sales

& their deals
& their bodies
bygone

but the land
remains

awoke to my
skull in vicegrip

morning's jaw
clenched tight

every minute
another tooth

& sunlight its
fetid breath

i summit
page piques
of curiosity

improv iotas

observe
each rivulet
ramble each
eluvial epithet

what words
will withstand
wind & a wash

accumulations
of weather
plus gravity

unsui
in situ

o how each
dry driftwood bone
in my limbs

at summer's onset

flares lavender with
a saltburn longing
for lost seas