sitting outside the municipal court

i am dark

like a rose 

in a dark room

a room without light

made darker by 

the sound of breathing

the smell of bodies 

moving about

made of milk by

ten thousand ghosts

singing the songs of neil diamond

the world burning, flying through heaven

it's tail caught in the spokes of time

made cleaner by the wounds of jesus

light shinning through them

fish swimming in their seams

god holding the body of a dead baby

in its golden arms