We heard each wound deepen casketless,
without mourners
held our breath in our hands while
the salt freckled the snow.
Tell me where our love went to hibernate Tell me if you shot its cubs
We were young together I can still taste the splinter of
glass I sucked from your thumb
And you can still see my father after his evening prayers
on the porch choking the tongue out of my mother’s throat,
his shoulders narrowbroad in the low light
See the way she rises after he steps over her body and
over the threshold
You are the only witness.