A Breath: This Night

the serpent's head is big as a wake
held for ancient hymnal heroes

sonnets are bonnets for guns
sons and lovers and brothers
oft left for other orders

I met you at a concert
and the music lost me
before you

where words disappear
I am

and soldiering snakes
sneak breaths between songs

this night: only

hawks defer to owls

sparrows disperse
as bats cut a knife's edge
from the sky

heat slithers away
leaving only bodies
pressed together

violence of sound retreats
into a stable breath: only

stars shimmer heavily

when humidity rises

only: this night
breathes together
a surrendering shudder
communion communal
beat-eating tongues
swallow milky stars
swirling moist air
between us

only: a breath
shared in rhythm

a heavy slogging beat
primal and ancient
mythological embodiment
movement enchantment

so we breathe together
only now: this night