Calico Crumbling

Strand by strand Piece by piece Your calico house Slowly. Then quickly. Unwinds, unravels. Once your palace, your bastion, surrounded by the trilling of birdsong And the deep humming of the earth It is empty now, and threadbare We try flames and quiet vigil Prayers, hopes, guttural desperate desires Whispered to the weighty confidences of your pillows That once held that beloved head of yours Through the dark night Nothing, no thing, Can consecrate your carefully carved out dreams Nor a well intentioned paw or a stray’s cast off hair Can melt, pray, scratch, stitch, join them back together Into what you once took joy in It is lost. As you are. The loom now lies cracked and creaking Scrap in the wind Under gums and smoke and billowing sky