a white great horned owl
and its definition

the papier-mâché scrim
of a wren’s nest

a catacomb
left
for a saint

a Polaroid camera
in a carpeted kitchen—footage from a contest

my cousin who is a Navy man

a papier-mâché wrestler

II.

seen from a roof
the tarmac slides
down a hill

the wrestler’s face
is superimposed
on a corn field

his portrait hung
in a forest

III.

his legs were those of animals
his legs were chosen

pink spindly pencils
found in a middle school

chosen and indelibly used
by the hearth

this mansion
of water and wrestlers

IV.

four chairs and a frightened wrestler

childhood burns away
the taxonomical score to be
discovered two-dimensional

like sight

the passive reflection
of not walking
glint-like, expandable commas
poems by other names

V.

ceilings laced
in charcoal

with signs of fingers
pulled across a dancer's runway

the ceiling fan is a starburst

the starburst
matches

a heron

or second old note on
blue paper

VI.

Yesterday I found two birds
dead in the forest

stiff little aestheticized beasts

feathers plastered on leaves

the mansions and catacombs
ready for flight

I will put these mayonnaise-based dishes

into the refrigerator

I saw the deceased birds
with my bifurcated vision

VII.

Melville was prescient
about America’s crises
200 years ago
taxonomical shortcomings
descriptions mistaken as understanding

I hear a good line
then it enters the crowd

like a tired bird
entering the forest

VIII.

Reaching in, a comma
may be expanded

a book may be opened
two hands and the cerebral cortex
stretch out in a scroll

my eyes, seen from a profile
imagined from another perspective

like dawning cataracts

I see these tomes
writing as if I can also remember
how I walk