the hand-made ropes of field work
(to show one the ropes)
to lose one's hand in the field, snuck off
by a hiding blade,
or the punch
bowl i dropped on my five year old
ankle, foot split, and how i howled
after the glittering scrounge of crystal on kitchen
you step from
as though it was the hunt of a tide
on a beach walk
your cuffs rolled up
for a step that would leave no trail
into a living room
that your mother might scrub from wood
and wool weft rug—
where you clutch it, weight to keep
back trace
over the writing, bathing places
how stains are critical
to hauntings, how seeing the blood
at your ankle or hand, unstemmed,
was what meant hurt—
the cue of seeing birds stirred from gorse
that means an ache of egg
somewhere in the brush-
ing away of tears,
and the home wrung for rubbing spirits,
a cloth to dab
or mop what was tracked
from room to room
like a joy to be back
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