Standard (EADGBE)

The tadpole buoyant as basalt

The seashorse horsing in the salt

The owlet in his greenery

The narwhal in his cup of sea

They all believe

They all believe

But collusion bleeds through back allies

From parapets that end in feet

When one is weak we discretely meet

We throw the bones into the street

As they progress

We retreat

And all the books our fathers wrote

Are in the middle of the road

Little by little we implode

History brittle, brown and broke

We can't remember what was spoke

So we stare in wonder at the smoke

What it begets is born alone

We know not now what we have known

Ladies breathe deep against your whale bones

When your children come back made of stone

And the terror seething seas away

Is like the wheezing of the bay

In miniature agonies

That travel westward on the breeze

And bring us all to our knees

And the dappled horse the sorrowed mare

With eyes that do not see but stare

Beneath boots as black as malachite

He drives a nag into the night

Into the night

And all the baby boys we've born

With eyes averted from the storm

Sent off to die in perfect form

We know not now what we have known

Satellite photos and rhetoric

See how the euphemisms stick

And when they come back broke and burned

Those who return have not returned

Ladies breathe deep against your whale bones

When your children come back made of stone