by want –
as in ‘I want you’ and

‘I want to write’ – I mean
as if the sap in the floorboards candled

and began to flow – bruises freshening
round the cleats and congealed grain

loosening like lava around the nails and knots
to giddy in lees where flour-gold would gather

were floorboards a river


I want –

no wonder the cat skips and shivers
and stares up wildly

into empty corners –

the knots scorch the shirred flesh
in their readiness

to spout scaled limbs –
and are the shape of sparrow’s

breasts puffed up against
a snow-strafed wind