woundings

the story of christian

so I picked up my camping gear and we headed up into the west

where the mountains climb higher than the feet of men

where only bird dare touch but never live

this has come with the challenge of fluids

from the shattering of teeth 

from the clank of bone

from the red letter blood left upon my sheets

that was a poem for my sister to find and for my lover still

and she thought it was of her natural body

the kind that is wept in the mourn of a nothing child

but it was mine and it came from a split upon my face

the split had opened a moon ago

and many more came to follow

until I was swept up and growing thin

my sister bathed my black eyes

my lover studied my wrists

they hung pale like ivory 

cepting for the blue twist of vein still scaling up the ridge of bone 

like vines to the bricks of the buildings on my block

you've lost too much blood

she told me

my sister sobbed

you've lost too much of everything

she told me

lover

what is this pain and why is it seeping beneath my floorboards

what germ in my condition is causing this flesh to give

and give what?

give all of me

so I head for the mountains of monsters

up to the west where the sky has no friend

but the mild acquaintance of the starlight

and there it can paint me like a shepherd 

my flock is tumbling from my arms

s. sparling