one day I woke to an oasis / and coveted it / I could tell / in that water / there were nine different ways / to say desert / in each version / we were dancing / dancing! / don’t speak to me / of thirst / I know thirst / in shades you’ve never seen / wear its coat like no one’s business / the trajectory of a myth this / one day your throat prisms / then unzips / an eclipse dark enough / to moat tomorrow / what do you mean / some bird ate my breadcrumb trail / what do you mean / I don’t have to belly-crawl for manna / keep holding my weapon / wake to these 5AM reminders / brawl by the eskinita / gnashing teeth and hooks / a mouth bright / with its own sick / as I rifle for my name / as I self-flagellate / for my name / lately all my poems refuse / to be born / these small unwilling detonations / the world not ergonomically sound / we were all students once / even me / knew the secret language / of date palm / fig tree / the fugitive audacity / to ask for safe passage / again and again / from some belligerent god / only I can’t remember the steps / so teach me again / what’s it like / to bend the world that way / to dance like / some kind of / unkillable