White Box

Pained, permanent

wakefulness

Exposed

in the split geode

a Santa’s grotto

Jagged milk

quartz crusts

constitute

every surface —

a mouth

all teeth

self-sharpening

like sea urchins’ —

“Uncomfortably beautiful”

toughened glass

spikes

in the doorways

of award-

winning offices

 — rough

sleepers from the womb

condemned

to make of anything succulent

rock

of porticoes

iron maidens