Where have you been, Tattertongue?
     lying with pelvis and ribcage
     wanting want
     old. old.
     reading the mouth for
     sugared ginger for
     blood sausage
 
Why did you leave?
     there was a forest
     of snapping saplings
     old. old.
 
What did you find?
     the vertebrae
     they were chopped
 
What did you do?
     caught a horse
     boiled its hooves
 
What did you taste?
     only
     bones and marrow-dust
 
Why dangle from a noose of nettle for so long?
     a mayfly in amber
     old. old—
But how old?
     honey dripped in Loki's gaze
What did you eat?
     numbers numbers
     old. old.
What did you eat?
     numbers numbers
     old. old.
What did you see?
     birch bark, ribs—
Did you cry?
     salt cod—
Where did you sleep?
What did you drink? What did you eat?
What did you eat?
     numbers, numb—
Why
did you return?
     of fiddleheads coiled in candlefish oil
 
Where is your tongue?
     sealed in a jar of black mead