flesh,
_           _in which I see your image
_               _ rest. House of ash,
_                                                 _ who made the fire
that set you going? Chance, says a voice. Accident, not message.
_               _ What use the arguments over supper?
                                                                                   Nature
_

is the book of God, the deist in my head
_                                                                       _returns, old
_               _ traitor:
_                             _ thought distinct from prayer:
thought turned water and smoke where the walls may as well
_               _ have been paper:
_                                               _a fine silver fire, a handful was all,

(—enough to buy a body, enough to buy a field of blood—)
_               _ has thrown
_                                     _the temple down, has let the strangers descend
on what is left of its effects: what is trash:
_                                                                           _our father made
_               _ the labyrinth behind
_                                                     _the church that ends in disrepair:

the narrowing circles of whitewashed stone
_                                                                             _ sink into the ground:
_                _ nature of the hour: picture
_                                                                _ of the wound: