father told a story
of Koschei the deathless,
wove his death through a needle eye,
stuck fast in a duck’s skin,
made flotsam of a foreign body

father told a story
as a vulture spoke before the wake
bile sept to crowned soil—
I feed my young like the rest of you—
one leg at a time

father told a story
while we sift through his guts
for something to put in our mouths.
lily liver no sweeter through rumination
though it drips now from our tongues

father told a story
on huc heem fa dan spring
slender eschalots fourth among
rung around in carmine wax (taken back)
candles inglorious in the hand of a thief