morsels outside the gate

a formal agreement without warning,
adopted as children, as relatives of this world,
arrested development in candor, breaking cells
for reason, for two parts, asking
pernicious lies, impassable depths
in dystrophy and lamenting cords.

canyon alleys impart crewel
starvations, blotches of armament for
stolen witnesses. a recurrence
from vast deflated armies, evolved from
interrogation, from basset hounds, from stories.

They dwell on stolen land, furnished
with inadequate supplies, tempted towards humor,
tempted to decay. rebellion and pollution
fix to the ground, they sing of misery,
and cling to poverty as though it is the last
promise and nothing will be left in the morning.