I lift the sea like I lift a blanket
and it pours as rain

.

fills like ink
fills wells without a wall

sea is a sluicing sieve
ships are salt grains

on cusps, sails catch,
midair –

.

bubbles round each soul
each clammy cell

nail ridged like mollusc shell
and peeps the shyest slug

specks pearl to eyes
aqueous, vitreous.

.

Then I fashion air
licking shape

sucked through teeth
snort out –

.

Last of all I dip their coral brains
in brine, which rusts hard memory

and makes it bloom a patina of a dream
which counterfeits exactly being dead.

To the blind conjuror I take a bow
and with one blow I scatter the new grains.