Rae Armantrout, p.1



PIECEMEAL

A boy severs his fingers,
by accident, in my imagination

where his first thought is

"My mother
will be so frightened"

     *

Horn jags
from a radio

as evasive
maneuvers:

extruded ink
jets, sea snakes

turn mouth-forward,
bodies snapping

as if

out of sight

as if

     *

 over
and over


were a scouting party
that arrives,

piecemeal,

in the third person