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Nearing Baton Rouge

The bayou's lethal and lackadaisical
alligator gar and garlanded moss
whisk by, ate up in Mississippi
mist strangled cypress

Tiny Akami dozes against my breast
you reel at my feet 
to invisible Cajun fiddles
in spasms of sleep

Tonight you roil and semaphore
in some sad veterans parade
tonight I'm wired semtex
no one gets out unmaimed

I will nurse our child
I will shutter the dying eyes
and I will forgive this 
first and only crime

But when you next raise a fist
against this butcher's daughter
you will learn what astronomer's precision
she can bring the art of murder

No man can meet my strength
with bright-eyed Akami next to me
you may captain rivers, love
but never take on the sea		 Song Before, Ripples Behind

Listen.
Tie five of these knots 
on a scarlet rope
and the weather will change
perhaps for you, perhaps against

Tie this knot around your penis
the other end on a lightning rod
while a rainbow is present
and you will learn a new word
only tell it to a lover or a messiah
sometimes the same thing

One day when you steer this boat
entwine a knot of song before the bow
and your story will unravel behind
in ripples

And here my only child
is just enough length
to fashion a tourniquet 
or a noose
some day, your choice

 

the first victim of the current outbreak is reported to have become ill during a diamond mining trip across the border into Angola. Reports suggest that he may have contracted the disease from someone who ate smoked monkey