listen

listen:

were it that you could
hear these bones
being etched in
scrimshaw behind
my age-cured flesh

what might you see
if you could hear?

a great horned owl
scrying mantic in
the deepening night?

peat bog perfume
rising from what shadows
are left to remain?

what peels bark
behind blackthorn?

i gather flint
in scarred hands
along with ash and
charcoal black
to scratch louder
runes anew