Coil S is for Sleep

from Unnatural History (1990, Threshold House) S is for silence S is for sleep Fears soaked in secrets Dreams that we keep Lost between were and shall be Here are we both, cruel and in ruins Walking into the centre of a circle of animals Exhaustion is the signal To start the slide of secrets Dead letters fall from our shedding skins Planting history in expanses of mud Here is completion Here is compulsion Here is another rosebud To darken the blood