DOPE HEAD BLUES

I live in a separate country, white as the snow

on rooftops and stained glass

windows, the still of the woods

at furthest noon the only thought I have

and morphine skimming my mind, like the first

swallow in the courtyard, high and small

the voice, as if it came

from somewhere else;

and somewhere else, the house of rain and corn

that glimmers in the dark, while I ascend

to morning, warmth

and daylight, like the shirt a man

lies down in, after a long

unshrouding, seams

unstitching in my heart,

the taste of me the taste of something other.