Day 346: Demure
∴
give me a birch branch
to bare my teeth in
lest my bark become
a howling tonight.
my nature is railing
‘gainst confines set
by my negligent
abstraction of sight.
who is it to live
in cages, kenneled,
and whose mirth lies in waiting
and stagnant?
such fear fed boundaries,
invisible and sound,
are as sharp in stench
as hope is fragrant.
so pulse in me
courageous blood flowing
that standing,
i daringly stand as i’m made
and raise from my
voice a sound: free repose,
my debt to demure
is finally paid.
∴
