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Beth Coyote

anchorite

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pierce my palms with your savage psalms

thistles are your bread and meat

feel their insult as you bend and wilt

your breath chromium bight

such a cloth over your purpled eye

you are a sight no lamb no sacrifice

madness is your cell

your bosom

your long nail


brother

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    the black amnesias of heaven
        from The Night Dances, Sylvia Plath

come sing the sliptknot broken forest tribe lie fallow sheepshank burnished eyesockets crumble collide runnel monkey's fist be precious in your marrowmeat the table falls with a slap clap your hands trap your feet how they swing! how they shudder clavicle could strangle clove hitch take a breath hold it dogshank lark's head in the river (you can) be a fish


gavotte

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create a brother song

brother dead man

brother come into our arms

we have enough for you to lean against

 (we rolled down the hill where you waited)

you're see-through

you're cattails swinging with blackbirds

you're a fist

you're a lanyard

you broke the headstones with your black banners

brother

carry us

build a grail in the snow

big enough to pour wine

carry us to the underpass

in your cowboy sleeves


swerve tendency

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here it is my ruined acre the ocean such as it is underbelly you have no heart I am sure about this consequential activities after the surfeit agenda so far we are rearranging the patio to fit the webs which appeared from the polestar here give me your hand I had no fear remember to use plaster a curling iron an iron mesh force the creatures out live in a dreamless bout casual as a moose hide you kept the cradle but broke it in two with remaining ingredients instruments remind you of laminate too close to the fire the basement burned accidentally at least that is what you told the neighbors we didn't get around to playing scrabble you have no words not like mine ligature replacement orphan splint abrasion cur


Living in water

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    The Rollie Pollie man told me how it was:
        - Frank Stanford

abracadabra say it three times fast then pee in your bed watch out for the cold floor even in the dark whisper so no one will catch you angle the latch fasten three buttons there there says your mother your father why because I said so perfume in three glass bottles all broken no one can find three mice they live under a tale dust books on the last row finger the pages dust what you can eat a lot of dust robins sing outside in the wind repeat after me yankee doodle went to town call it macaroni if you are quiet I'll give you a candy tomorrow I will I promise I will daddydaddy are you asleep


I see your white horses

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come with me to the boulevard
we witness the absence of arks
I caress your dendrites with rose water
if the police arrest us   deny my name

awful childhood   under the lathe
your remarks are encoded on pleather
we made collars for loose animals
they continue to spoil the pleasure garden

you have become radiant as mouse breath
I admire several episodes
send more gingerbread next time

I share with my friends here
we subsist on bad grammar   pencil lead
squat over milkweed
thunderheads approach


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