Morning Prayer with Rat King

gravity accounts for the distance between weight

and mass it can also mean alarming importance      human

bones are so full of gravity it’s hard for us to

swim I lost my glasses chasing a branch in the ocean

which is far too deep to dredge      sometimes

I imagine the sea’s made of actual

tears this would explain the salt      think of all

the disconsolate toddlers weeping right now into

the earth the tears must go somewhere      it’s important

to consider everything to name what we’re able      oceans

give us rain but we don’t call rain ocean      knot a dozen

rats together by the tail and you’ve got a roi de rats

which is harder than rain to hear in the night and

far less welcome       who mourns a rat king

frustrated chthonic always the biter never the bitten

they give us the evil we need to stay moored to

good still I would break any promise to avoid finding

one       O Terrible God of the Mechanical Age I am

your favorite pilgrim yet even I am finding it impossible

to speak to you now without asking for protection