You Know Something's Happening / Or You Wouldn't Have Come Out Like You Did

[lbangs]

Mal (II)

After screaming air,
The solid punch of heatwaves,
Houses shattered,
Straw ablaze or quiet,
Smoking upward
In sad and solitary caravans
Exhausted black before the

Ivory clouds of flaky phylo dough
In layered honey golden sheets of sun.
To east, the brightest blue is lying down
And settles to a bottomless meditative
Purple.

At some height
Between the biting dust and gentle sky,
You must no longer hear
The unstoppable pain and mourning.

9/25/19