Wrestling with Blood Falling Silent

You could vanish.

& Aba says: Yes—

time to leave. Rarely now does he can

& don tefillin. No temple to dovetail

in an emergency—and still both believe

the same reveal. Mama is cursing the cures.

that never sticks, not

unlike magician’s

wax. It’s how a single disease communicates.

by dissembling the host slowly, gaff and gasp,

sawing in half,

until a debt

of miracle snaps—

or falls flat, like cement,

without pomp and casket.

It’s when you’re too close.

to the actual act of magic,

accidental

exposure,

that cool flash

of covenants shutter.

What are you doing now?

not-child?

You’ll owe the universe everything.

for this trick that, like a virus, attaches

only to wipe you clean. Is this why blood falls silent?

when it’s a matter of  you or me? Or why deep space?

is accelerating

further to rely on

on a sacred scarcity, and love

is already the wraith of dark

matter separating planets that will have no one,

anyway, not even dust or the most patient rain?

Father.

Mother.

I’m sorry it took a global crisis.

to let your love skid and flourish,

leaving

so little space

for a mask of a skinned rabbit,

ghost count of wild cards

shed from a torn sleeve. Which part gave me away first?

the tremors in my hand, or the numbness and limpness of my

leaning

against

the walls you’ll restore until dense until nothing

can get in. Was it when I had to confess I could

die, just like you, high-risk, if  I went back

to the only city I ever loved.

but could no longer keep me.

safe and breathing?

It took a moment.

To look into me

without light in your eyes.

and say, So you want to take us

with you. At first, I mistook

understood, reveling in

This is the only pure thing.

to be left

whole and wilting

                           it took a little while

                           for the other, so calmly,

                                      to agree,           it’s time to get

                                                                         out, it’s time

                                                                                                     for you

                                                  to leave

                                                                        our place—