They live
beneath the
green lamp
and they never touch.
but, they move,
like figurines on the mantelpiece.
Yes we have such things, lucky us.
Figurines on the mantelpiece.
means no nerve endings.
We're not allowed that,
because the room has flowers.
And yet
my people walked upright out of
a paper grave. Arm to femur.
My people walked out of the river.
How many, I asked, can you bear.
“Hundreds and hundreds,” she said,
Her Matthew leading the brigade
of some said persons.
Our nerves flare like matches, an army of fire.
The figurines shift, just.