Still I am aroused,
fog descends, drab
brother rolling ravines

Glistening then wet.
Exposed — pain
yearns for love,

Release, and fall
back into myself.
Offspring dig into

My flesh by day,
they forget me.
Yet they will return

Into my perilous night.
I will nurture my children,
then I will eat them.

I know birds eat — all
berries — messengers
of heart harbored in hollow.

Robins fatten on seeds —
plump flesh of soil heaped,
damp maidenhead turning
Black eucalyptus peeling
creamy veins of secret rivers.
Berries scream red through

Winter — piercing pleasure in
curls of bark. Night lengthening
next to her ripening.

Sister stars laughing — long
and cold — the trip hard, far
beyond this place where no

One sees spruce, sun-dashed,
or rain-impregnated hills, wind
funneled or the coast’s ragged

Dance. In an empty region, dying
light burns steady. When called,
sisters, you may not soon return,

Nor may you linger. Hurled earthward,
you land square beneath raven sky
On this rocky trail of hurt. No balm

For your wounds but words —
the search greater than all telling

Inside the body of fire— this live altar.