willow braids
she wore her hair in willow braids
crenellates husked autumn brown
stormed majesty now scalloped raw
Stalin’s early graves, repellant inhumanities
fragile innocence now oven’s slag
in Solomon’s kiln, breath’s last exhalation
she wore her hair husked autumn brown
crenellates muddied coarse and brittle
willow braids, a fragile innocence stilled
Katyn’s bloodied hands, scythe’s excavator
genome’s hellish-ire raking Polish skulls
death’s whores tittering, twenty-five thousand
she wore her hair muddied coarse and brittle
crenellates appealing light’s mercies
willow braids scattered, shorn bear
stomped upon by mouth-bloodied boots
a cruel winter solstice, a black murder of crows
intently hovering, awaiting the last exhalation
willow braids husked autumn brown
man is wolf to man, atrocities inexpressible
hard frozen ground, hells’ indentured sky
muddied skin, a fragility too heavy to bear
man is wolf to man, storm shadows castled
Katyn’s repellant kiln, Stalin’s mouth-bloodied boots
scythe’s excavators raking Polish skulls
willow braids husked autumn brown
she wore her hair in beauty’s fragile innocence
