And straightway the damsel arose, and walked… and [he] commanded that something be given her to eat.   Jairus, whose name means “God will awaken.” Softly: his daughter. Softly: night’s passage. Fever holding her throat in its teeth.   She sweats. She dies before Christ arrives. Now his words pull her up by her tongue.…

For the island has harpooned me. For the day will not end. For salt-drunk I swam to an underwater cave and saw clear through but the sea pressed me and I turned. For I am glad you could not see me clamber onto the stone beach, awkward as a palsied horse and naked but for…

Imagine horses at night, their terrible heat. A field torn open by hooves.   Or slumbering in a great circle. Hair. Haunch. Lilacs moaning in the dark.   Fires moaning in the dark. Morning gropes like a mound of hands. A bone breaks and refuses to be set.   Come down. The trees smell like…