Carnivorous night

How extraordinary to have survived
 
               all of my wrongs. I arrived here with nothing 
but myself, the ghost of some 
long lingering
                    forgotten touch. Sad cicada song, 
evening-dark bracing 
for impact. Elm trees in the yard, 
                                              gnarled hearts drinking 
          memory 
like promises.  No coveting ignorance. No negotiations 
in the margins. 

                                        Body’s equilibrium fixed 
                  to hunger. Close my eyes & fall into 
the salt-rimmed  
Ocean air.               I was a girl with long legs,
           muscles quick under thinning 
doeskin. Fist- heart, impetuous & 
waking every afternoon 
                                injured. Agility of wave, 
algae permeated scape, celadon green. 
                                           Tide middle-death. 
Feeding on goldenrod, 
moth-eaten body inseverable 
          from the carnivorous night. 

How extraordinary to know what I am—
        to have always known—
I open my mouth & the wind ties knots
                      inside my throat.