Little Clay Bears

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I brush snow from the black earth
And reach for my spade
And I plunge
The cold steel into her
Her grave
Her final cave
Beneath this hellish dirt
One may find her lack of fur to be unnerving
Her show of bones
Her stubborn skull
Adorned with stones
I begin The exhumation
And I pull, from this hole
Her toothy head
To place by candle light
To paint on and cherish
Her skull proud and bearish
I could not leave you
To rot in the dark
When I’m laid in my final cave
I encourage My own exhumation
Cut off my horns
Hang up your snowy clothes
To dry high
Upon my antlers

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You found my tree
You cut her up
Tied the branches down and threw her in the back part of your truck
At home you laid the logs out and spoke a sorry poem across my cheek
The writing that you read was just a lonely group of lines
But the bleeding of your hands and the burning of your eyes
I’d like to fall into the sea if there’s something I could find
But the end of me is holding hands with the body next to mine
You said
“The wood that kept us warm was once a friend of mine.
He had letters in his stomach that at night would start to shine.
Hearts on bark and hot on oak, this southern tree is dead to me.
If I’m burned before I get to see the sun come up
I’ll lose my mind”

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At night I see that building glowing red
At night I see the snowflakes falling dead
At night I sure do smell the burning wood
At night I’d come and see you if I could

I’m searching down these dark and empty streets
With snow upon my pillow and my sheets
I’ve come across so many thieving lakes
But now I have something they can take

I found my love In light below the sea
I found my love In light below the sea
I found my love In smoke that’s blowin by
I found my love in the darkness of the sky

Now I’ve built a fire on the ice
I can name the constellations once or twice
Before I’ve got the water on my skin
My dear I fear that I am sinking in

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You whisper like a carnival’s reflection in a spoon
Where tungsten light and tongues too white
Tell secrets to the moon
where babies lay in warm sand dunes
Within their thin woven cocoons
Arcade light that floods the night
Brings color to the drunk street fights
Calliope steam collides in moonbeams
Golden eyes alive in paintings
Clear clear ice above dark water
Beckons to the only daughter
Circus screams way past bed time
Darkness creeps in on a dime
Close your eyes in leather booths
Silver tips on cowboy boots
Wild boar heads on the wall
Broken shards in the hall
Shattered in a shade of blue
A darker shade could not be true
Women singing in hot showers
sleep to blossom like dark flowers
Sleep to pour into my head
Sleep to lay upon my bed

I know it’s getting awful late
Sweet sweet sleep find me quickly
I know it’s getting awful late
Sweet sweet sleep find me quickly
Sweet sweet sleep
Sweet sweet sleep
Sweet sweet sleep
Come and pour on me

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You crossed me as a dragonfly
with wings as blue as midnight
Your laughter spilled like water
Down my chest and out of my eyes
I watched the clouds turn dark to white
And held your quiet heart in mine
The peeling back of nightfall
Left a stinging in the sky

In lonely country silence
I can feel you in the air
Within the dim lit tree line
I can see your glowing hair
You lay upon the pink pond water
Beneath your skin my brown eyed daughter
I have never felt this pain before
I have never felt this way before

You crossed me as charcoal wolf
With teeth as white as Christmas
The trees had bark as black as shut eye
Sunlight tried to miss us
I laid my palms upon your fur
With all the love inside me
Your body sunk into the moss
And I
I have never felt this pain before
I have never felt this way before

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At moonrise
I saw my death and birth
At moonrise
My small heart inside the earth’s
horselike chest
At moonrise
I bathed an evil body
At moonrise
I danced with everybody
In the world
At moonrise
I lay atop migration
At moonrise
I’m carried from the north
To my southern death
At moonrise
I curl to white hot vents
At moonrise
a sun made for my chest
At moonrise
This dying star is mine
At moonrise
I find it hard to find
Hearts intact

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My angels live in porch lights
And my heaven’s in the hall
There’s a melancholy spirit
In the auburn leaves of fall
When the grasslands fall to fire
And the smoke lays in my jaw
I’ll be hanging like a blue star
Over porch lights
Over heaven
After all

The moon is but a liar
The sun is but a thief
But orbits sure keep turning
Although it may be brief
We’ve all got to find us a heaven
Or some angels we can see
While you’re hanging as a blue star
Above a blue creek
Like heaven at your feet

The spring is but a merchant
The autumn but a blade
That’s wielded by a burning star
That turned and bled the vein
Somewhere on the ground we know
Upon these burning plains
A lonely shard of heaven
An angel cold and brittle
Brightly lays

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I took your picture out in front of that blue glass
Your teeth on the water gave me something to think about
Wet hair on skin like seaweed on the sand
You laid the green across the hazel like a feeling I could fold in my hand
And you built a burning fire upon my nightstand
You had white whales painted on the walls of your bedroom
Where we sat on your blanket and sang about nothing at all
You had a lake behind your house where the sun found his home
You laid the stars across the water like a secret I was never told
And you pushed back my hair
And your hands felt warm from the flames