one night as the hours caved in

One night as the hours caved in,
cracking like a length of ribbon, shorn,
and smiling ribs and sepulcral fingers,
as they broke,
Time got up, she stopped and left the room
and left to go, and entered soon,
with running feet that, mad with passage
shared the future’s running.
The women in the garden who,
among the crackling ribbon flowers,
and with much consternation, screeched
the lamentation towards the fleeting of
the day
as she ran wide;
Death rattles and ululations followed suit,
clothing themselves like deGama
in Florida,
and swamped in heavy armor’s glistening,
she went to her drowning.

robert cole-sackett