Torch Song: Notwithstanding, and: Torch Song: Godelieve, and: Torch Song: Life of Smalls, and: Torch Song: Keepers, and: Torch Song: Mad Song, and: Torch Song: God’s Hooks

144 ALLYSON PATY & DANNIEL SCHOONEBEEK TORCH SONG: NOTWITHSTANDING I wanted to tell you the grass today when it trembled it looked like a crowd of women white bonnets all of them shaking their heads saying no you will not • There's a word for the smell of rain after a dry spell not for how it burns slowly off what is there to tell you the way stillness interrupts a field once the horse who sees fire has fled 145 ALLYSON PATY & DANNIEL SCHOONEBEEK TORCH SONG: GODELIEVE I loved a man once he was almond butter smeared on my teeth he spoke man o'war when he kidnapped me my father the insurance baron wept I sewed his name into my chemise • Found a bandana in the mud today I sucked the water from it shook it out saw it was a map your fingers at one corner lips at the other I tied my hair back and made for the X 146 ALLYSON PATY & DANNIEL SCHOONEBEEK TORCH SONG: LIFE OF SMALLS Today I'm engaged to a reddleman drink blanc de noir from his skull recall when I taste the black grapes a boy from my hometown his face I caught it like smoke in the bottle • A broom across my doorway it's one car on the road the song I hear you belting is murder in the red barn jaw that cuts the night how your breath chased your voice chased me down 147 ALLYSON PATY & DANNIEL SCHOONEBEEK TORCH SONG: KEEPERS Name the land no man's and one's already placed your hand on his weapon man being an old word which means law is worth more more than the man who breaks it • Mistake the chimney swifts for smoke or garbage but birds find a way back into the house You stand at the bolted door holding your plea your luggage 148 ALLYSON PATY & DANNIEL SCHOONEBEEK TORCH SONG: MAD SONG The wind wants me to lose my mind again william The wind and the boy and the chain I see him dragging down the street • Circle an owl and they say he will wring his own neck A screech so like the storm when it carries off your voice your face in its mute vigil 149 ALLYSON PATY & DANNIEL SCHOONEBEEK TORCH SONG: GOD'S HOOKS Say let's walk due west today let's walk straight into the river with silt on our ankles let's mark the next shore next city • Republic because in the one hundred something odd years I have known you we've only found one word that slanders this place we call it halcyon ...