As if that hand
squeezing crow’s blood
                 against a white sky
                 beside an idiot’s laughing face
were real.

Having set out
in shoes that hurt
by the bog road
                 and missed the way.

A cold day
dragging to a
                 cold end.

The blood congealing
black
                 between the pleased fingers.



Puñal is a city in the Dominican Republic.