Maybe it is the descent
implicit in the way the symbols
stack, circles turning
inside circles, the wheel at work
as the end in the action eats
away. Something inevitable
that structure of fitful scripture
the cadence of water
rain making gutters into falls,
gray skies and dripping eaves,
want laying it on while
the battery runs down. The tree
written so often described unknown
as misnamed passerines,
raptors attached to the explicit
tithes of divination and
the divine, owls unseen
closer than names
come the night. Half allusion
three quarters vision from within,
the wings that do not pass
world after world, starlight
and the negative space
a longhand sky leaves,
branch and bird, wind and world
saying everything a little bit off
stirring embers and giving smoke
waiting as the earth comes around.