Between a rock and a heartplace, desolate
and forgetting; between dazzle

and burn, the brain uprooting
from the spine and spirits brooding

the face of the deep, algae greening the face
of the water. Between crosshairs and the first

pulse, a ganglion branched like lightning
through protoplasm; between noon

and a magnifying glass, a hurricane
and hurricanes, reasonable agony

and the tongue sliced out at the root. Between
the boys next door playing ball, the ball dwindling

to a speck in the oaks, a shadow rippling over
the face, or ever the lover

writes to close the letter and snow creeping closer
through our confusion, a fly circling

my head as the sun the earth and clandestine
operations, faulty intelligence, dust

to dust each minute unsparkling from the cells’
constellations. Between the veer, pencils

poised to track the velocity and torque
of each between the tick and tock

and fingers pressed to the lips. Between the rose petals
and the assassin, a ship in one bottle,

an ocean in another.