II. Cranes

now that you are here
please
know

that sometimes

it is not

pleasant

in fact
be warned
that
sometimes

it is quite painful here

the caterpillar
cannot help
but unfurl
into
monarch wings

nature shows
do not record
the screams
or
bleeding
of unfolding
wings

we grow them
and some
spring fresh
while others
shoot
from backs
scarred
and used
to the effort

we prepare
for flight
with wings

unmeant
for leaving

or
escape

what we want is not
to go

but
to arrive

and to

tremble

with

the world

what we want is
to become

those

whom no one owns

but the line

the sad line

whom we cradled
and folded
back
into
itself

has
come
uncoiled

it is stubborn
it is
non
compliant

it is used to itself
and we
are used
to it

we don't know when
it was born
or cut
from the circle
just
that it fell
and the universe
was squeezed
and
carved
through
its
middle

and the line

once inside
our insides

became not a thing
but an everything
ness

I saw it
the other day
poking its head
from
the circle

stretching its neck
long
and proud

like a crane
leaving
the nest

its beak was shiny and
dangling from it
I saw
a beautiful crystal

like an earring
clutches
a diamond

the beak
clutched
this crystal

like
prey

it raised its lattice neck
of metal
and
machinations
and
there you were
multi-faceted crystal

hanging

dangling

dancing

in the nape of the sky

you were
treading air
furiously

for twenty minutes

for

twenty

minutes

dear crane
you are not meant
to adorn
the
sky
with death

please
find your way
back

from hook
to beak

from metal
to feather

from line
to circle

from death
to life

Al-Lat
Al-‘Uzzá
and Manāt,
exalted goddess cranes
your intercession is hoped for

swoop down and rid us
of those
who commit

corruption on earth

deliver
these
satanic verses
to
those

unpurged
of the line

to those
un-remembering
of
the
feather

it is only Tuesday in the
revolution

yet I see

a chandelier
of crystals

hanging
from
hooks
in
the
sky