A n   U n k i n d n e s s   o f   R a v e n s
 
The color of your left iris
Is paler than the right.
(no one else has ever said),
The left is more
Pastel mountain sky,
The speckles in a robin's egg,
Shallow ocean
Where ghostweed has fallen,
White hot electricity
Dancing from the broken cord.

The color of your right iris
Is deeper than the left.
(no one else has ever known),
The mid thirteen spines
Of the Indo-Pacific stonefish,
The poison injector set.
(death occurs within six hours),
The seventh band of Saturn,
The Aquilla constellation
From Alice Springs, Australia,
Plutonium
Three degrees below its boiling point,
The edges of amethyst
When trapezoid cut,
The outer limits of the sun's influence,
Twenty-eight to thirty billion miles.
(no one has ever seen)

I see your infinitesimal details
In our home
Whispering
Over a tumble of sheets,
At sea,
Diving through a shiver of sharks,
On the hunt
Over a skulk of foxes,
In the dream lake,
As you speak
Somewhere between
An unkindness of ravens,
A deceit of lapwings,
A haunting of carnivorous nights.

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