Michael Burkard

"the clock of the invisible axe"    

                  —Victor Hugo

can you leave by the
second side door on your
way to the ship?, or do
you have to flee toward
the front, like a horse
not wanting to serve
in war, or not favoring
at all injustice to a woman
searching still and later
and also belatedly
for the soldier
who undid her in
another town in
a different time—
and places are
like clouds when you
try to desperately
or obsessively retrieve
                      them—