Mourning comes/
in little waves as desire comes/
in little waves

You mourn the girl I was / as if I killed her, / as if I left her / in a field somewhere, / shipwrecked in the dry grass –

Whenever
heads touched, our
dreams were related
by blood.

I sirened I lamped my bones and the boys mothed to me
said woman I’ve got to have you halve you
like a river I have no memory of being named

I believe you believe you meant me no harm,
yet violence was the first way you learned to hold anything.

Science, do not forsake us. / Pretend dying won’t be inglorious / and hard, that we’ll reflect light like gowns / sequined and glittering