*

Cancer, dusk, estuary,

  knife, prayer, mouth—

cage, face,

face—

*

 Air reveals itself around her body,

  death ties on like stone until her legs

have taken on three times their own weight in fluid
and she begins to refuse all visitors. Old hopes

became honest mistakes,

  like the one in which a god opens the air

  to send her quickly from her bed.

*

God, hole, wind,

  bone, throat—

face, name,

name—

 the body turning

 to each side

 no shield, a shield—