Attrition

The venom drips
snakelike
It finds a way
through the cracks
spreading where it falls
it burns
through stone

It never stops

I catch it in a bowl
of painted clay
with a red border
like blood
I will not let
the venom touch you

Beloved

But sometimes
the clay breaks
the venom spills
I scream
it burns
where it falls

It flows too fast
for me to catch
There is no bowl
big enough
I can’t
spare you pain
like his

Loki

We are not gods
that lie
broken beneath the earth
we cry
shifting the coils
of our mortality

Remembering
the stars

And the wide circle
of the sky
long ago

But now
There is no

light

but darkness

In the cave
the venom drips
relentless

until the world

ends