2. aldermastodon

(cassius marcellus coolidge via)

"The wind-stained willows of Acheron." --Sandra Hochman

now at the point madness sings
now where the pale western sky
persists from sheer inertia

a promise of bottleneck
isthmus lighthouse punctuates
throng raddled a fastness turned

caress. A foretelling of war,
ruination; think: we make
& all this because we'd hold

to what we had uttered wrong
the land under strangling ices
& thestered with smelly fumes

existence chased without looth
a somber waking called hemlick
writes nothing where something spoke

By the time I get to Phoenix.