THICKET

—Its juices that have greened my chin

We come gnawed by need on hands and knees.

As a creature ( nosing ) grubble-seeks a spring.

As bendy-spined as bandy snakes through saltshrub    yaupon    needle-brake.

For darkling green;

for thorn-surround.

This absorbing

quaggy

crample-ground.

Of briar-canes ( intervolved with kudzu-mesh ) and mold.

Of these convoluted vines we grasp to suck.

To taste the pith—

the lumen    the cell-sap flux.

To try to know

some ( soursharp ) something about something.

Lumen is as lumen does.

‘ A little room for turmoil to grow lucid in. ’

Leafwhelmed in here

where Clary sets her cart-tongue down ( and blinks, and craves ).

In here where Tynan breathes.

We grasp to suck to taste what light.

Let loose the bale that bows us down.

—Bow down.