does not depend on false hope
or the rain-polished deer vertebrae
she palms in pockets :: urchin
crown does not offset frown
as muddy letterhead catches eddy
and air current :: she invites no
one to funerals but the white-
tailed, the molted, the burred ::
she’s known nibbles :: the in-
crawling :: filament-soft roots ::
she’s been intimate with larvae
of silphidae :: she needs no
tapetum lucidem to uncurl
her vanta black with bloom