(~)(~)(~)(~)


Impact craters, sculpted from clay, ivory, and bone.
Crowds receded from soft-lipped outskirts
then came flooding in, a feast of blood
and mere verbal numerology;
then it was all long grasses, and the mouths
no longer waiting there

far removed from fashion, clinging to the hillside
temperature-tower of baked brick
the many beautiful fountains
with the city laid out neatly beneath