ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS
Sequence: 7
REFUSING TO UNDERSTAND
what comes from the dog's mouth
or the lunacy of the whippoorwill
hiding from the last verses of the song
trying to read what is written
inside the bark without
stripping the tree
listening for the feet of the prisoner
to come dragging by my window
his chains slipped and the last
steel door passed
but the smell of metal
preceding him I think of
darkness under fingernails
the hard hands the white stones
I refuse to understand it
I would not try
to understand falling
even as I fell