lambskin

hermit relishing in close

quarters candles burning dripping

illuminating scripts tools brushes

caressing sheaths

of goatskin lambskin

stretching eyeing the whorled

pattern pocked where hair

once grew soft suede pulling

taught—dye

of oxblood of crushed violets

of ground moss of plucked spring

petals sullied pleasing pink

of yellow bile of black bile

and coal stained

fingertips tobacco-stained lungs

hacking black wetted ash

phlegm of cerulean

royal blood—

damp

the skin stretches

is hammered is branded

is binding volumes

for amoral hobby

sport pleasure boredom

ritual obsession with text

mania for language literature

words the very letters godly and

the hermit relishes

clothing this god

with soft vellum in lambskin

goatskin it cackles jokes

worship in humanskin.