repeat/taeper

December, again, holds you by the throat with a smothering

childlike harshness, holds you feverish in its baby fist and limp

like a plush bear with loose stuffing, year-worn. Generous in its

ability to prop you in place, to woo you with unhurried technicolor.

/

December, again, with eyelashes pointed down, pulled like a

window shade, a sleep/awake doll waiting to be tucked in, still

counting on the rustle of dreams. You move with dead batteries:

stand, crawl, hunch. Collecting, compiling, dust-sweeping.

/

December, again, is antsy in the way that you itch a molting

wound. Hovering over candles, humming 'now' now, 'always'

always, the hatching of rituals in splintered wood, the sound

of bells - web-weaving - remembrance like a knot in the spine.

_____

Publication credit: "repeat/taeper" first appeared in Reverie Literary Magazine Issue IV