What Did You See?

I saw the shrouds of prisoners

like baptismal gowns

buried outside the cemetery.

On the canvas frills exhaled

singed wool and cardboard.

The angels arrived as lace.

Took notes, then stuck. Awful residue

from a small cut.

                                 •

The veil has been ripped from the skin

where it was burned in.

The skin is the veil, the baby-material,

imprinted on, as if

one dropped the handkerchief

and it was one’s wrist.

The cuff is frightening.  

Stuffed onto oil.

Water-stains might fence its ghost in.

                                 •

“The barbed wire complex”

I understand.  

Winged and flattened

at the same time, poor things!

Some leftover specters of blood.

Remember Blake’s figures like columns

with heads

looking around for God?

When events are not as random

as they seem.

                                 •

The article of clothing

is only half there, it’s not full,

but when it falls forward, it is.

Terrible emptiness of the spread

neckline and little sleeve.

Half-cooked squares.

Was this religious fire

and is this where it passed?

Maybe they are floating on water

of paint, pool-sized,

blue and ridged like foam.

You would have to fly

to see them flat as a map.

The rib and hem. Rained on

for eons. Noah’s children’s

floating forms.

                                 •

Angels die?

It’s a frightening-miracle

because here they are.

The Upper God

has let them drop

like centuries into space.

And I recognize them!