here is the night on a pen nib. sabre carved & starkened. cross-hatched stretch of stars. abyss. full. of not knowing. of teetering. here is the moon’s bright arch. curving. guttural. coffee-stain ring of half. remembrance. here is marshland pressing. below a dead-rimmed sky. scalding. rabbit-eared tuft. of longing. bless me. for i have. desired. snatched. wanted. greedy-handed. stuffed my mouth so full. i choked. forgot myself. fleeting. here is the world in an ink spill. thickblack. gleaming. spread like faded light. painful. here the water. waits. eager. manuscript of anticipatory. silence. stuck. in soft-drift splendour. it’s been years. since last i stood. here. straining. forwards motion. less. here are my fingers. exposed to the air. freezing. startled. by the depths. of not-being. here is the sound. of stiff-limbed. resignation. knotted. curling upwards. these are follies. delusions. half. snarled. roots of forgetting. wisped. vaporous. & somewhere. in the not-here. a small word. of recognition.