Laughter pours through the hourglass

of days.  It is mortality speaking.  It means

we are closer to what comes after.

He decides to measure.  Record then

name.  Tear off the cover.  This work

carries risk.  No insurance.  You could

wake up one morning breathing nothing.

No one reports darkness, but what if.

Carriage rides through blank fields.

A voice speaking frantically and no one

hears.  This is why they invented love.

A painter’s canvas shimmering in June

heat.  Children playing, shouting human

things.  Poets singing as if through time.