Cross Bucket Candle Knife

          I.i.

out of the flower grow

shoulders ulna carpal

meta carpal twig radiate

green muscle sheathe

star flower fish bud

for an eye for a mouth



          I.ii.

femur for a knee seat

cap cocoa bean drum

beat bone crease if one

leg one arm 90-degree

a flat board pin rotate

pole does a ten moon

balloon diagram orbit

an invisible planet six

stamen pecans shaped

head upside heart down

family tree branches

forced snail whorl ball

curve thorn turn branch

that is not branch ball

pedestal ghost stand

in the gallery a ready

made scarecrow objects

to the object made ready



          I.iii.

bird of paradise wields

a knife sting ray head

scalpel for the skinned

saint step this way one

hand raised judgment

triumph or illustration

a circulatory system

tuning fork for the Re

of a peeled back torso

plants’ pecan eye says

mandible tongue root

grunt stamen crown

bud drop long turn-

key double hollow off

a sliced open avocado



          I.iv.

here the missing skin

crustacean spine cords

rib cage pine cone coffee

bean bun nape locust

wing veil two leaf

mountain crown

ascend the rosetta

blocks lizard tail

pyramids leech teeth

crater segment closed

pillar compass skull jaw

on the brain three bird

eggs honey combed

stamen electrical cord

scrawled and scarabed

blocks scabbed ancient

abacus names tiered



          I.v.

cactus potato fine

hairs on the flat aloe

slab single barnacled

breast two-fetus chalice

corked with a knight’s

helm elbow rooster

eye octopus growth

tentacles bone heart

onion roll clementine

slice slot and tab

stalk feeler umbilical

cord glow eye or ball



          I.vi.

single leg single arm

pinned pivot pedestal

chat with a grand

daddy leg tourniquet

key proffered balloon

arm candelabra pod

a thumb in open hand

shake blooming star

head fish petals repeat

line and ball line ball

circuit and nub road

thought place thorns

that go nowhere charge

the air flat board heeled

planked flanked peeled



          II.i.

gnome skull glow

wave beard halo

beam streak Martian

moon to a barren

landscape two hands

disembodied cuff

reach but do not

touch flat matter

covers sandwiched

silhouette a tower

and two lights dark

escarpment Horus

crowned fortress



          II.ii.

condor dinosaurs

jungle net in Vs

and Xs beak talon

boas serpentine strike

hook and question

mark one woman’s

shoe white rose toe

snake skinned cross

piece curio box old

desk drawers rail

ties ladder rung



          II.iii.

a plow a pipe two

seated sphinx Easter

island stone face

leonine curl the first

sphinx riddles why

bangled human arms

hold exposed horse

shoe crab its shell

a bowl its stinger

a lance hand grabs

striped shrimp leg

segs stone throne

a condor perches

on the sphinx’s

echo wings folded

like a shell answer

in a whorled tress



          II.iv.

consider the shoe

tower a ladies’ laced

boot bowed curled

hose horn bangled

font a plate of fire

revolver handle ear

bracelet a man’s

hooked hat shelled

skin guard a man’s

loafer knee slipper

hip toe pipe smoke

bellows heel eel

turkey or rooster

or kingfisher curve

marble eye pie tin

thought bubble crown



          III.i.

earth a hard boiled

cup seven magistrates

egg shake hands severed

at the fore gallery float

planked space earth’s

spooned fate baked



          III.ii.

pile five golden eggs

nexus of three balls

and three balls seven

eyes lash out three

eyes marble earth

birthed from Venus’s

fly trap shell pillars

eye recede articulate

points infinite trills