Cat claws on the heart’s tin roof, each breath
a locomotive running off the rails,
the switching signal’s warning rat-a-tat,
I’m up too early, the alphabet net snags
and tears, moths, then motes, then gone. What I love,
I undo, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.
No one knows me, matchstick Guy Fawkes doll,
my burnt head micro-ember sunset gleams,
day moon hostage to the dark’s slant dream.
What ghosts I have I won’t or can’t give up.
Impossible to love or leave, poor self
banging its head, wanting—what?
As if I knew what I meant or wanted,
baby voice humming: mouth skull smile.