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Scene I: Bats in Charleston
menaces hum
menacing hums
burbling loud until
screeching disappears
five cats appear and
all is silence.
Scene II: Classroom of Clickers
my ear rues the silence
that follows a gaggle
of forty hands writing.
roomful of fingers clicking
to break through the windows
and rent into skin.
Scene III: A Tree
the day is dusted there are
no more clouds
behind the tree is harsh light.
I am sat underneath
aging as the light
ages behind the balding cypress.
its knees are hollowed
I am sat nearby as
the day becomes deadwood.
Scenes IV: Observer
I click a photo of two barks
inches from one another careful
or prudish not to touch
the photo changes nothing at all.
I walk inside and fetch
my orangest-brownest knife
and carve in an image
now the trees will remember.
Scene V: Spectral Urbanity
they only exist in evenings
invisible streetcars line meeting st
arms of apparitions dangle
like fruits about to fall.
ghosts of city past
I feel the wind from their smocks
and the ammonia of obstinate
cigars and cigarettes.
specters of shoppers
their fish and yams and piecemeal wages
their children suckling
in this haunted present.
