In the Wild Light (Elegy for Phillip Earl Pruitt) You were there when my life felt like I was trying to stop a falling axe with my hands, every time I dreamed of rows of doors like teeth in a death-clenched jaw You spoke “tree” and “wind” to me for the first time, as if whispering God’s secret name in my ear This world is knives and wolves but also swans and stars; you taught me that Once, in August, before you had to beg the air for breath, I watched a hawk descend on a field and fly back into the yawning blue with talons empty I marveled at a creature that could fall without being fallen and
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