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pages, browning and brittle
flakes of words spin
down the long funnel of your breath

the shelves
the kink in your neck
thickly packed sentences following
down the long divided spaces

wood on wood
keep you warm, flickering on the grate
heating coffee, grey dreams of words
float up the long soot-crusted chimney

obscure the stars
reeds, once the medium
tall, tassled and standing, feet in waters,
down the long journey to the sea

silt sediment of words
no one can read