Moon is hobbled and placed in a field.
Listens to cicadas and watches the cripple
walk to the restaurants to play his bagpipe

Even at night I go out with a light and look
at the growing. I kneel and look at one thing
at a time. A white spider on a peony bud.

In this palace which is said to be
a replica of heaven

The square stone room makes a shape in the air
to rest inside. A form for holding what is loved
beyond naming. With gratitude and reverence

Fear of seeing a police car pull into the drive.
Fear of falling asleep at night.
Fear of not falling asleep.

The sad music of roads lined with larches.
The forest in the distance resting under snow.

The Khyber Pass. Alexander the Great.

The nights are very unclear here.
But if the moon is full, we know it.
We feel one thing one minute,

In a little patch of ground beside
the wall of the Earth Sciences building,
a man in a canvas hat was on

Now that you’ve gone away for five days,
I’ll smoke all the cigarettes I want,
where I want. Make biscuits and eat them

They’re alone at the kitchen table in her friend’s
flat. They’ll be alone for another hour, and then
her friend will be back. Outside, it’s raining—