1.       what was

          mirror-images:
          twin cities like two bodies
          blasted in a single furnace

2.       what is

          drawn here by the after-burn of light,
          they are too frail in sin
          to be any good at it

          the men drowning
          in the darkness of their own hearts,
          in the weight of commandments
          that broke at the ends of their fingers

          and the women
          like wronged angels and
          fallen things: no children
          will hold in the cyanide nests of their bodies.

3.       what waits

          house of the rope
          house of the razor
          temple of bullets and pills:

          the bright doors line up
          and the knowing stars
          ride out the whole incendiary night.