Animal Life

Shearwater
Born inside the gates of the family
Hardened by a Roman machinery
Cast among the building sites
The coiling wires, the shots collected
Called out in the wake of a lottery
Held inside the family gathering
Mirrored beams and doglike stretch
The wandering association
Murmurs in the dark confessional
And it rides along the road, ephemeral
As in animal life
Rusting in the shade of the batteries
Pacing down the balance beam of half-remembered holidays
No rush of light, no sign of belonging
No joy in building, love in the finishing
Chasing down an anodyne and half-reflected radiance
To hide below the ancient barricade
In chambers like the rooms a swallow made
For an animal life
Charging down the maw of the ocean
I wanna come close, I wanna come closer
I held your name inside my mouth through all the days of wandering
But called out from the mouth of oblivion
Cast away like dogs from the shelter
I shed the dulling armor plates
That once collected radiance
And surging at the blood's perimeter
The half-remembered wild interior
Of an animal life