breath after coma

***

those moments of calm-alert, little sister, i can see their restlessness turning into gold.  i know That: your elbows are cracked open into wings &, the big black sky yawns to receive you.  you should go, but you can come back because, for the life of me, i can hardly comprehend the end.  so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all; to be connected, to be humble, to be affectionate, to be affirming, to be poised, to be generous, to be fervent. church-words, i scoff but- demurely defer.  it is an aggressive, binding, irresistible command &  n o w  is the instant of burning, ineffable consent.  we drove by them and i yearned for the trees in threes, a careless streak of lavishing grace and ethos on people who don't deserve it; to spend only a moment of thought on this is to be compelled not to be anything a sniff less than fervid and fevered, i say. fever, i say fever.

to be compelled, the victim of
the goodness curse/ be good,
be kind, be better/ how strange,
innocence. (your hand in mine)
***