Excision

Saint Agatha       fissures
suede & out       crawls ox
slack with smog       Agatha & I

pumice & obsidian
       Smear our crowns
with Mount Etna

       I flail
Tongue-soft
How to measure       Agatha & ox

she fetters       Red curtain
ankle-length Imagine me
pearled       Ox sniffs & licks

Ox beats the fly       with tail &
       Agatha speaks now
‘You are of consequence       The ox is

of ox’       Lava slinks toward Catania
Ox tail swats
       Dreams I’m a plow

I gouge myself       a city
       Agatha wets &
threads me