now i understand

now I understand

the worry of the moon,
             and what is human at the heart

of all the darkness crowding her.
             i learned today that people are a kind of drug 

and everyone is wasted 
             on them. that sorrow bleeds 

as much as hope, both begging life 
             from a ruined womb. i learned i cannot keep from sinking,

that slumping sun, bulleted by birds  
             and collapsing crimson into tomorrow’s trench, 

and that I may never reach that one untamed acre 
             of wild I call a heart,

or that further frontier of my body, 
             and remember what it is to be free.