beads fall from your mouth dear

and clatter to the floor

did you think you were

leaving me with nothing? no—

when you’ve gone i fall to the ground

and gather them to me

turning them over

and over

in the moonlight

clutching them to my

breathing ribs

and putting them to my lips

see? i put some in my mouth

to clatter round the pan

of my jaw

colliding off incisors

and molars;

ricochet round

the hot dry dome

of my bone cracker

skull.