You step through your radiant house

without a machete.

Apricot pile flames waist-high underfoot.
The wool looks like silk. With the
tips of your fingers
you press burnished strands
lightly away.

The blue sun of the wall blazes.

See this, see that.

Incense, aromatic oil, cumin, cayenne--
you sway through this drunken
swirl too

as if held on string

leading two plumbers
to the basement,

down the bald steps
to a different stage-set

that place of metal and dust
rammed under your nest
of home

extracting them

Two plumbers cut a grey swathe
through the blazing forest of your house.

They carry dazzling
tabernacles.

In the first     a ciborium.
In the other  it is not
a tabernacle
but a blue plastic drum

in this other the day's catch
thrashing

luscious with sea water.

You don't discern.
You don't differentiate

between the plumber with the tabernacle
and the plumber with the bright blue drum.

Someone else is writing this poem.

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