I didn’t mean to quit drinking, 
it just sort of happened. 
I’d always assumed 

how can I
ask you to
absolve me

couldn’t stop / himself picking 
his red / lest it
pinken lest / it pale 

as if         you were ever wide-eyed enough to believe in urban legends
as if         these plot elements weren’t the stalest of clichés: the secret lab, the 
        anaerobic chamber, the gloved hand ex machina, the chemical-
        infused fog

For instance, this lushly verdant plain. Imagine it dialed back to featurelessness, each spiraling stalk retracted, each filigree rosette slow-blinking shut.

Give me that! Give me that!
Okay, go and get it.
She fell

The narrow cell contains a bunk,
steel desk mounted on the wall,
toilet, sink, and television;

The house
A frightened face
In the window of another house.

al-Baghdadi picks his teeth with an archaic toothbrush. 
Salvadora persica from Babylon, 
a twig twisted green from the mustard tree.

  The wind is against us and the ash of war covers the earth. We see our spirit flash on a razor blade, a helmet’s curve. The brackish springs of autumn salt our wounds.