The Night Word

Is a curse word
that burns like stars
in a dark throat
damning you for another
forgettable day,

is a broken word
whose splinters imbed
in your fingers
when you try to piece them
back together,

is a holy word
that absolves you
of the sins you are bound to
commit beneath a blind
and blacked-out moon,

is a last word
that defines the whole
of your life
the way smoke writes
the biography of fire.

Kip Knott | Vanishing Point
Contents | Mudlark No. 50 (2013)