No one wanted to do it, no one wantedto look at a thing so large, helplessto die or live, not knowing what to ask for itself.To imagine an after. Even less to change it.Because they all imagined themselvesgentle—no hunter, no wolf among them—theywanted it to return to where the crease of woods began. The woman, she…

               Before I’m born, I’m in no hurry to be born. So I arrive unhurried. A shape in the trees. Weighted, a fishing-line pinching                              the water’s surface. A voice like the moon, wordless        …

  If my lips are zipped—if I keep our delicious and contagious secret—if I am amnesiac or too hungover to remember your mouth  on mine—if I forget the imprint of your body indelibly stamped—if I search for you, call for you, lover, stranger, alien—if I offer up  gratitude to the air—if I rob you of…