before the locusts came
before computer digitized time
before periscopes in stealth submarines
before his sky of losses

a jet overhead was sweeping echoes broadly across
was sweeping came so echoes came
sweeping thusly under
a sky a dark sky
of locust

loci that see less and less
as telescopes contract
into microscopes
into stealth
into shadow
into orange
before

His face lit
overhead
by the bed
rubbing sweet oils
into submarine skins
kneeling
Christ
in a jet
face lit
in a patina
of orange
liqueur
kneeling
on His
losses.

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