You ask for your body

to be delivered

to the woods

wrapped in nothing

bare as the doe

whose chest scooped in

for hulled muscle

stripped of heart and full

of air                   we saw

this by the river

father and child with coiled

hair    their catch between

them not like kill but altar

space                        You ask for your body

to be delivered to the woods           ushered

beneath canopy            propped atop a root

system whose many arms could be

your cradle           your final

comfort the tone of russet

You ask for your body to be

delivered to the woods in light

snow or rain as dark as your mother’s

hair            your body              meal for eagle

whose secret is scavenge                        

You ask            for fracture           

rupture                        ask to go blue

as glacier     red as marrow

you ask for your body to be delivered

to the woods      darling      you ask