Let the world end
That has never said hello to me.

I've finally begun
To realize I missed the beginning.

Late to the show.
Life was late to my birthday.

It's now 11:59,
And no angels show themselves.

These seconds burying
Me like dirt, like tar, I'm just waiting

For the last crumb
Of daylight to say, Adieu.

dense as marble, your body
is something to hold onto

after years of chasing shadows,
thin reedy men whose leavetakings

were their legacies, fashioning
(maybe by accident) crude sharp tools

with which to stab my heart.
look at it today,

made thick by crisscrossing
scar tissue. have you ever seen

anything so beautiful
that was broken but

unbroken? here, feel
the heft of it in your palm.