As I block the cat
mouse scampers behind bookcase; now
mouse nibbles books.

heartbreak house: broke door
glassless windows, sagged clothesline,
weeds squat on porch.

moonlight silvers bones
in fingers grasping shadows
vanishing like breath.

worn tires hit gravel,
ten years buried; unburied
held in aching hearts.

knotted fists collapse
cowed by steel-eye glare, tight mouth
incised in silence.

when they come for my
body, check there are no stray
whiskers on my chin.