BADLANDS SET

BADLANDS ITERATION
Iron is the tongue that flares
Along the sand's quick belly,
Double-current tongue that shares
Its scumline with headland and sky.

As sky recedes the sea, the tongue
Thumps out its life's-length music
Along skin-dunes
Along the continental sea bed.

The tongue goes black,
As black as an iron tongue,
As black as a sediment rung.
The bone collector rubs his thumb along

The dark scumline,
A lime ladder
In a forest of lime ladders,
In the evening while returning
To his dry camp.

BADLANDS CHIASMUS
As sky recedes the sea, the tongue,
Its scumline with headland and sky,
Thumps out its life's-length music,
Double-current tongue that shares,
Along skin-dunes,
Along the sand's quick belly,
Along the continental sea bed,
Iron is the tongue that flares.

The tongue goes black
To his dry camp,
As black as an iron tongue
In the evening while returning,
As black as a sediment rung
In a forest of lime ladders,
The bone collector rubs his thumb along
A lime ladder,
The dark scumline.


BADLANDS ZACCHEUS
The bone collector runs his thumb along
the rim of the Lord's cup.

The Lord his cup presents to his judges.
First judge ten pennies plunks in.
Second judge five pennies plunks in.
Third judge two pennies plunks in.
Fourth judge stuffs his fist into his pocket

And from the depths extracts a clouded penny,
Huffs up his penny's cloudedness,
Shines his penny's cloud face in his beard
And like a leper in a sycamore
Fourth judge his offering plunks in.

The Lord His cup overturns
And the Lord's cup takes the place
Of all other cups throughout history.