Animal Life

Born inside the gates of a family

Hardened by a roman machinery

Cast among the building sites,

The coiling wires, the shots collected

Called out in the wake of a lottery

Held inside a family gathering

Mirrored beams and dog-like strength

A wandering association

Murmurs in the dark confessional

And rides along the road, ephemeral

As an animal life

Rusting in the shade of the batteries

Hanging from a rope in the gallery

Pacing down the balance beam

Of half-remembered holidays

No rush of light or watery longing

No joy in building, live in the finishing

Reaching for an anodyne

And half-reflected radiance

To hide below the ancient barricade

In chambers like the rooms a swallow made

For an animal life

Charging down the maw of the ocean

I want to come close, I want to come closer

I held your name inside my mouth

Through all the days out wandering

But called back from the mouth of oblivion,

Cast away like dogs from the shelter

I she'd the dulling armour plates

That once collected radiance

And, surging at the blood's perimeter:

The half remembered wild interior

Of an animal life