A WILDERNESS
THAT SHIFTS
I.
ulcers stretch
the lining of the circle
where we find the data
leaking from ourselves
and it coaxes and widens
where the exit is the start
and the end never begins
exhausting every single thing
the infrangible cold war
traveling inward
facing our greatest foe
the misnomers are already rendering us
fated to continue wandering
II.
we bind in a suffocating cloth
how we have already cloned this advent
this deliverance from
the fetid throat-sand
the madness of the desert
and its unclassifiable animals
still we long for natural darkness
new compensation for the victims
treasure for the landfill
entries in a manual
III.
if we could see ourselves
collecting sticks and leaves
things hollow and flammable
in the corners of our mouths
the dust and food residue
but we are preoccupied
hunched over
our work, our shadow