when my life is arid or frugal
i take the cave wall for the whole cave

i take my rings     my arms off
and feel unmarried

outside the ants are transparent
and soundless      they move in floods
and up through the sprawled hands of trees
       which are also very sad in their bodies

if i allow for all means of ruin
the cave collapses     if i allow for all walls
crippled     to stop covering

and the trees do not wince
and the paintings     red and bleary
are not      do not even
resemble hooks