i.
these hands will learn
to orbit
a new destruction.
a deliberate inheritance-
something borrowed:
the tendency
to peel back the nail
and watch the blood
chameleon itself red.
begin to envy the audacity of steel-
how it reflects,
with the white ferocity of
eclipse,
the radiance it inherits
from the corona,
an ouroboros;
both the world
and what devours it-
at least in this fleeting way
it can hold light.
not its own. no.
some other source.
some other, greater burning.
ii.
here is the photograph, the time-blurred edges,
the fading of the pigment
as fades all else.
the sun, in search of its own shadow,
taught me that anything that
revolves
can be a compass.
so i circle you.