when all there is left here

is fingernail clippings

and shoes

and things to groom with 

these two lips are parted

top on top of bottom

and at a loss for words

for a time one may quiver

until it recalls 

the other night

it was told to be still

and know the order

of pasting then cutting and

cutting then clipping

that nail that will never be small enough 

that will never be wise enough

to tell how one is to go about

clipping under 

orders of ‘be still’

be dry skinned

be still

and know that

this will shake you and 

undress you and

caress you until

you never needed clothes to begin with

and leave them on the floor

with fingernail clippings 

and shoes

I am the dark

I come uninvited

I come, I encroach

at least once a day and once in this way

heel to toe to heel 

with my head hung low

for I know I am not welcome

I wish I could hold you

instead I choke you

instead I extract

from your brow, from arms, from back, to sheets

leave them salted-damp

I wish I could whisper

sleep into your surface

instead I scream

which shatters you, which breaks you

you are forced to wake

which is only a condition

a temporary condition

I am your fears

dark brings me here

despite my outward refusals

I come, uninvited

I come, I encroach

dragged by the wrists here

with my head hung low, dear

just know, if I could, I would leave you to be here

I would run far and farther away

but in fact, I am bound

by the dark, which I surround

and we bid you-

do not lose sleep over me

I draw a bath

To draw a line

From my fingers to my toes

In search of solace for another

I lift a hand in the face of feathers

Which to me say danger

Power to their color

Power in their numbers,

Power in their volume

Not their mass

Which leaves them crying,

“Daisy! Lacks a daisy!”

lackadaisical neglect

to the pressure on the bruise

with attention to breath

attention to hair

on the shoulder, attentive to

sound, attentive to

shards abound the wall

thereafter the strike

of surface on diamond portion

I lift my hand to take them

For lack of a daisy

I take them for the lesser man

Who at least has room to grow

I, with heterotelic intention

I am solace for a brother

I open my palms

To find feathers

And daisies

And shards as a result

And scars inconsequential

Because YOU ARE MARKED

As a result

All the world is darkness

And I close my eyes to find no difference.