Weeks on my back, counting
stars not up there, cutting quick
close corners in the wheelchair

Ralph kept moving true as oil,
questions silent in my mouth
after hearing a ragged sound

You huddle into a shield or breastplate,
a whisper in the dark summoning your kin 
one by one along the frontier. In your kingdom,

Caught here in your limestone cave,
lost in a limbo of slow water torture,
for you, each day is night always.

As if my mind's double-jointed
Sometimes, I have wanted
To bow my head & kiss

A tallow worked into a knot
of rawhide, with a ball of waxy light
tied to a stick, the boy