and it all falls to me

   by Bates Corlieu


they’ve all gone now except the animals
rolling my little green sea
and it all falls to me
like a coconut in the hand
the head to chest
hand to head
to heart
then dropped
limp at my side

and what would I do with it otherwise
but pet the manes and stroke the shedding
and be steward of the long words
the little words’ shepherdess
the words that walk, toddle,
track right back through my paints

would that I could
I’d bring you back to light
like honey in a jar
all sticky and folded in brightly
burning up the moment
hunkered on starlit haunches
in the turning of the now
to not, to never,
never to see the skull beneath the mask
the heart flung out the window
cradled in air