post 4b

i thought perhaps i should also put this here just because i can

the liberty shroud

she had eyes
but what she saw was an effigy
that burned with each touch
each painful word
whispered with enmity
to the dull shadows cast by the smoke of autumn sun

she stepped through rubble in a robe of ash
blinded by the slash of steam
the slice of steel
pealed like a thunderhead
of a thousand hoof-beats on the horizon
electric with fear
abuzz with speculation
a reticulation of rumors
consumed with dissection
and she watched the slow flow of red in strips
dripped, a memory
gripped white in the taught blue hands of throttled wind

she was a widow, a window,
a specter among the paper snow,
people saw through her until they coughed
and then like two pillars
our two fingers pointing back at god
she dissolved with a nod
into history

2 october 01