TC TOLBERT

From Amending/Amen(d)s

held down in a body you are no longer
afraid of the dark not a dark you let into
the light     look at me when I’m coming
into you even though there are no doors
there is the shape of a door     in hoarfrost
a bird on its back     what is it in us     forgotten
                                                                     names
shape need     every winter a winter of fire
the sun raising all that breath from the grass

I don’t think it matters what we think / the ghosts still believe in us

were you singing     I wouldn’t know
in whose hands are my hands I could only kill
                                                                  what I love

about the window it is less the animal grown
from cold      more the fallen from which she will eat
what is without hunger is not protected from knowing
about the bones      I cannot keep holding my own
head underneath the water      where the light
promises      thaw even      god can’t say maybe soon
if not tonight      I’m going out beside the highway and
                                                                     opening up