Fides, fidentia

Fides, fidentia -
the tongue parses the declension
like a prayer,
the vowels are round
and square, enter
a dimension of the brain
that deals in sound.

Lips are alternately
round and square,
tones velar, locuted
and the student
pauses to stare
at the sky -
birds, flocks of birds wheel by
against the sapphire's golden eye.

The hawk's wings ruffle in the wind,
beak and bead eyes turn, tuned
to movement -
hovering - wait, wait - drop, hit -
the calculated blow -
blood-flooded mouth -
cloaked throat cannot swallow -
pain pronounced
by thin squealing sounds
amid the seething grass
the small shrill call
as a body leaves the ground.

Fides, fides ...
the brain's seethe ...
the lips, tongue, teeth
teeter on the griping edge
of eyrie
dripping in the wind
congealing granite
crisping, turning black beneath the sun
fides, fidentia -
instinctive treason.

Human cycles of
rotation and pin -
crêpe paper pastes
the window to foil
the dawn.

The coldness of a moonbeam
strikes the floor
and shrinks the room ...
the glint of gold,
the whispered word,
hands flutter
in the solemn dark
absorbing eye, the face unseen
a purple pupil drinking
a skin of leopard limbs
deceiving ...
skin of camoflage, concealment
he claws the door
his prey unaware
there is a war.

The word declined
the tongue has learned
throat hoarse
from trying ...

fidentia, fidentia -
and somewhere deep down
in the dark
the sound of something dying.

His pleasure is the jungle
warfare, predator, its wild vowel
crying and declining on the wind
its strike of lightning
like a mind
easy, empty,
is swiftness on the tongue
sweetness of deception
fides, fidentia
grinning.

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