If you put one leg
ahead of your body
balance on it and swing

When I was a child 
I brushed as a child
which is to say often 

King George the Fifth 
looked like my grandfather 
and felt as close

Loaf of bread or sheep's
head, rubber nubbed
for traction on flatnesses

On the chine of the first white inkling of the winter
The Ravenmaster wraps his limbs in combs of wind.

It is November; the tower closes down

There will be ruin in unwelcome worldliness.

On her way to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Sister Mary Aloysius 
Drove past many signs: Earthworms Here. Have Many Rabbit. Calicos 
In Burlap Sacks for Free. There were wooden crosses, some upsided

Winter was the ravaging in the scarified
Ghost garden, a freak of letters crossing down a rare

Path bleak with poplars. The yew were a crewel

Sometimes I think I will be broken by your lukewarm Hand.

I was not ready for your form to be cold
Ever. Even in life

You did not inhabit, necessarily, a form,