The axis and caryatid of her family
spiritually eroded
her worth still visible and full of savour
the sodium vapour lamp at the end of the driveway
turning back, and back, a clock wound too tight
an empty lot aching
with memory licked
by frost and sought by deer
a pound of flesh preserved and
cured
She unbuilds herself one
gram of certainty subtracted from the next, and the next, from sand and
stardust undifferentiated
Withered, bitter, brittle, golden, whiter than her hair.