your name for purposes of identification
how can I when it’s failed
better a border made of water
harder to cross
each seed is different
like each tongue
how many heads
was the right question to ask
of the flower
but of the dog meant
they were already wed
when he found her in the underworld
the nest of baby snakes beneath the field marigold
steady as a heartbeat
she already married it each seed
like a moon
honey
made of fragments
caused by collision
the eyes of the snake feathery
iridescent
there is no paradise without a wall
the skin of the snake peels backward over the body
even the eye molts
if she were a bird
now O., he could sing
three times the black dog opened its mouth its mouth its mouth
it’s always the mouth where the snake first breaks its old skin and twists itself out from the belly up
each tongue of the dog sweats
splits oxygen between the brains and the heart
the tongue of the snake is always moving like water
the moon slitting in the pupil
each seed of the marigold spiky
like a bright new skin
the question is always how much
light to let in
the egg
the three mouths of the dog
to each state its own bird its own flower
state the nature of their relationship is unnatural
O. the poet and his dead wife
the state itself is a structure under siege
each state its own law
state what you can do to the body what you can say in what language you can ask for it you can read it
the state cannot say where the state begins and ends
state the name of the body by the tip of the fingers
too many dead
O., order
the animals with your song
go on
back to a state of nature
we are all animals
in that animals
have no allegiance to the state
the state controls how much we can
drink on Sunday because overlords we can drink till the sun comes up on fire over the mountain the edge of the state of mercy how many guns the state controls where my baby can die if a man rapes me where I can wear my weapon in the open the size of the can of meat to subsidize how many to a prison
the state is unsupportable
the state sponsors a climate
of terror
of all the ways you wanted me you wanted me most as water
ice heat no matter the state of the morning
no matter the sea there is salt
in the meat blood and milk
of the animal
O, O. you died when they could not hear you sing
O, O. you swore in the end the song would tear you apart
golden lyre your mother taught you to place the bones of her hands where the strings should be
how to stone the course of the river
with deep blue stone
the beard hair and eyes and of the animal are blue
in the state of nature in the absence of awe we war in the state of nature all men are free within the bounds of the law of nature all men are free to order their actions in the beginning people do not know each other well enough to go to war O. could we return what would we be
tribes are united by language, say, or belief
citizens see themselves as a single people
expansion knows no state
primordial to begin
you can’t have order without it
from a row of threads in a loom
state your claim
hand in the sand
draw the line
without it
the spine
is curved in every position
draw the head as it draws
in each breath
the heart pulses outward
ice
I’ve chosen a particular blue
my favorite part of the water
you can’t choose one part of the water you say
I say I can why
can’t you
the snake’s eyes go cloudy
the tongue functions underwater
he sang she followed he looked she divided the dirt
before the state a blank slate