Jared Carter

Blood

All that is precious
Lies deep within us

Up through the tall tree
Unseen the artery

What comes to pass
Known to Tiresias

Poured by Odysseus
Flow slow and viscous

Eyes like dark embers
Achilles remembers

Seeks the right words
Clash of bronze swords

Pale figures glisten
Draw near to listen

Gravestone

What can no longer be
reaches out to me,

accepts my silence, knows
kinship with the snows

lately gathered here,
only to disappear –

ciphers written where,
intractable as air,

a touch still leaves a trace
of something unerased.