My face casts sanguine shadows on the ashes
enough of us soul our heads down into dabbles, dust
suddenly badly ached, barely scared

Week-old kittens mewl as Mama lays down
the fathers don’t want you to get high—someone
waters spring down, pretending

Descriptions scale to the size of thought
blunt dough pulled through solid air
lost elasticity crumbling in your hands

I’m hot below the skin
where coughing slowly furrows
bleached like paint’s eyes

The dead are waking
in churches—Neon eggs crack
like dawn in a rice grain