I
His grimace was
   all he knew --
So everybody saw

A knife-edge,
   grinning into the black
with a howl

Widening, a tunnel
   tearing out, and God bled
in the tower


II
Above fallen corpses
beautiful fields of Nysa

Now, asphodels overrun the field...

   he is dark and tall,
   a wild dog,
   an unripe plum

I thought he was going

(He came.)

They all faded


III
He grinned,
his own leftover

and for a moment
the dusk rages,
scorched-looking,
dumb and ruined

See the cracks,
the **** of the world,
the crinkled sigh
rapt in the river of blood

Something evil
rises, and his eye
stays rapt

a blackbird
in a plum tree