Ceremony/Metaphor

A great clock is sunken off the Gulf Coast
as a crowd of people applaud.
Children are lifted from their feet when the chains are
cut, then peek to catch a glimpse of the clock’s forehead
as the green lines of water swirl in.
It is now the home to a shoal of cadaver fish.

They serenade me with their humming
in the silver evening. The white bone of
moon is barely visible
miles up, and I am blindfolded while my
dim servants attend to me. I think of what my life
used to be; I can hear the earth breathing.
The time left over
is cracked and fondled in a parrot’s mouth

ingenious, a comedian. The seagull with a black head
dives for my family. Takes one of us.
Next week, they’ll sink a piano.