as though I were a sleep

though they found me on my back
they turn me over
the press of a thumbnail
to the cause my flesh

my namesake, the sunrise
peels like an orange
the clouds, moldering like fading autumn
a smile, like a weather vane
following the north wind

as they tie me to a tree
and kiss my feet

the muscle, like cotton candy
tugged free

a child molds it like playdo
rewriting the world
like Plato, Socrates, a teacher

morals are
like the Bible – of ether

in the face of water, the mouth
that swallowed them whole

the whirl pool, the spigot
the truth
a frozen
abandonment

the temple made of a trillion rib bones
Adam, after Adam – the martyr sacrifice
eat the apple made of tartar sauce

though they found me on my back
my head lay upon a pillow
as though I were a sleep
my eyes
nothing more than walnuts

the world, hollow – in love
the silence

before a headstone, carved of wood
they paint, the weeds, the world fades
counting out the paces
it takes to walk home

to dig myself a tunnel,
out of the grave
a prison of worms
and broken promises

of pearly gates

agate, the sterile hands abate
                they find my heart
removed already
             you can’t mummify
             the inanimate object

and again, the world is silent