Absence, Luminescent

I Arch inverted: white peony and stamens, yellow. Center of the body. Imagines. Who is absent. Fingers in my mouth—memory. Dragonfly so blue in the head. Orange, as fire, in the body. Wings, transparence. Disappearing arms. The space where he was. Aureole. The space he is, she was. And the opposite. Defines the dragon which flies. Iridescent where it was. Echo of hued wings. II Heat at the center. Heat where she was. Lack of passion where the torso won't go. No path through what is occupied. Space. III Falls in a delicate arch, sees own soul. Cadaver as shrine, concavity. So white. Says white flesh and no spirit. And touching the dead. And touching what is not. IV In our calculations: the fact of matter at lack of matter. The invisible, collapsed star. If you must,a black hole. Thus the message of blackness clearly indicating the coordinates of nothingness. V Remembers the pilgrimage to the illumined wall. And Christ's face was said to appear. God's face. Who sees it? Child trying, trying. Says to the child (and it is the juncture) go toward faith, go through absence, way to belief. VI (Not believing. Not seeing and not believing. All the chants to atmosphere, blanks.) VII Implodes, and all the way to nothing. To illumine, first, then fades to black. Hole where light was. Absent star, perforation in there. And memory of light, halo on. Angels who walk among. Seeming darkness around the head. VIII Falling languid. Lover not there. IX My sweet—the miles,the night. Darling my fingernails bear their half- moons half-gone how long? The house.Really my love. The rooms are emptied.Haunted. Ghost of you come here body. X And I can see her, worshipper, with a blue robe, biting her nails— thinks it's true,it's true, someone witnessed the miracles, someone saw it all. XI And the mouths. Reeling the bass in. Hooking the parabola of mouth, air. Violence of fish body in the air. Absence of water, presence of... Open my mouth. His fingers going in. The gills going open open nothing nothing. Dragonfly so blue in the head. On red wings, disappeared. Sing sing going going. XII Of all the tendernesses at the end there was that bouquet of wild orchids the constant ritual the washing the turning of the body so cleansed by a lover's hands until the struggle for breath the gasp and the body getting less warm the ceremony and like the Egyptians all preparation then the emerging presence the advent of absence the adornments artifacts in the tombs where the lungs tighten in our awe it's all there but spirit saying goodbye are you gone it's difficult to tell you must be