Ruminant, Conqueror

6.15

I

I dreamed I was a stranger by the water,
I watched you swim. I carried your shawls
Through the sibilants at dusk and you
Never saw. Someday, I shall be a sword
In the hands of a stillborn. I will be carried, I will
Lean in, unsheathed, I know it. 


II

This time of year the plants on the lake
Are bulbous, they are like the severed heads
Of knights, they are still, a mass of tails,
Merfolk fished from the blue forgotten fields
Of whalers and whales. The long always.
A red-winged blackbird stops and keeps watch.


III

Moon, fountain of youth, let me kneel
A while and drink, I will keep your secret.
I pass from apple to apple, rejoicing, I
Have something like the first dream, I thirst,
I shall arrive without arms. Fill your hands
Of you and take my head. I am next.