Who Lived Among Them

there lived a rhapsode and his wife.

When they ate, they ate straight

from the vine. Her curves, sibilance,

Serbo-Croatian chants. His chants,

curves of clocks, burnished bells.

When they ate, they boiled wings and gills.

Nights, slate olives, he couldn’t see.

Nights, slate olives, the girl who watched

goats leapt the fence

of fret wire to watch

the rhapsode’s wife writhe lily-wide.

When they ate, they ate straight from the fire.