Rafted & tangled in their separate sheets,
Their single-bed dreams depression-poor,

Eyelids aflutter, they snore & fidget,
A watch & earrings
                               their sole commingling, the dresser

Jewelboxed & decanted with their smells.
Insensible persistence,
                                      the burning leaves, their pungency.

The world’s a book of shadows. The boy stands
Swaying in their bedroom’s center, equidistant

Between each cloven city, battlements yet untoppled.
The camera spits out its blur. Bakelite

Transistor from a far room: static & box scores, early Beatles,
October sleet.
                       Neutron, proton, electron, our orbits

Linked & isolate. & one to bear this caption
Graying to another century, block letters in a trembling hand.

   Contributor’s notes

   Introduction
   Something of Us to Prove Our Afterlife: Notes on “Ochre”
   Table of Contents
   Acknowledgements

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