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The sky will grow very tall, 
opening up
to the arena battlefield 
of skies filled with warring stars.

Below, you stand on the cold tarmac, 
drunk off domination

The flames off the coast are blown inland
by seafaring winds.
Shadows thrown by towering columns 
of raging heat
cover the clean earth in layers.
An early snow.

The desert hills bake
in flat sunlight

The man upstairs drifts back into the cloying blur of woolen dark
to whisk down the crackling stairs

out of the tepid light’s dull radiation 
the hallway’s itchy carpet

tethers flesh to a moment of control

A cigarette before takeout pizza and stale beer on 
city sidewalks against dirty windows at 4:09. 
The hallway walls trip into open spaces with tin ceilings
that shine down warped faces of real-time regulars layered

I can feel the car drift as it shifts across lanes, passing over the neon dirt that fills the puckered holes in the asphalt.

beneath your linen wraps

your hands are soft and damp 
filled with lavender lotions 
salves made of summer syrups

and oils 
from the wooden banisters
smelling of 
chamomile soaps