the small bits of brick & plaster
laughing in the room / above / us / become
a dance in deep cold / & the gaps in our play
as evening falls into darkness / deep with black
you tell me absence / is a circle
with inside / and / outside indistinguishable
but that does not / solve / the riddle
of our needs / as / flat / dead / expired
in previous times / prophets would seek
the desert / for consolation / burned pure
by sunlight / and / fantastical heat / until
visions appeared / and transformation / was won
now the vision / the promise / is of endurance—
to the stoic go / the spoils / of pyrrhic victory
for the heat & the flames know more / than
they will tell / or that will be discovered
thus it is we stay together / bonding heart
to longing & longing to heart / until
the mystic sings out / an answer / or a curse
and desire / is / no longer / the enemy / or the savior
