Order

Now the sneaking serpent walks
In mild humility,
And the just man rages in the wilds
Where lions roam.

I dunno. I just don't do justice. Justice requires evil. I prefer compassion, which does not require indifference. It doesn't require anything. You can do it at home in your night-clothes. But maybe it's just that I know I'd never qualify as a just man. I am compassionate though. That's like falling off a log.

---

The Order Of Their Going

It was snowing in tiny flakes - 
albino gnats - today,
but the ground swallowed them.
Its dark wet tongue 
took them all. On the river

barges are dusted with snow; 

gulls are hunched on the pilings;

snag branches rise and fall

with the breath of winter. 

I gathered brass flakes as a peace-offering

and opened my shirt at the throat:

but it seems I am sorry 

for the wrong things, and in

the wrong order.