Upon Loosing a Tooth: A First Poem for 2024 

Douglas Olds

 Routines of an igneous beast enslabs, consigning,

 pulverizing, uplifting from spine burdened, so

To swaddle gibbeting cradles

swaying pendulous ‘neath the nearwolves’

jutting cloud of teats

driving abutment of templed wind  rousing the reshoring plow 

two-edged masteries such curtains, throats exposed by tides,

its moment in envy's destine:

as mercy massages their Jerusalem-slouching journey.

 As so they wander to mistaken rebirth by the mirror of history’s steel

And as they do, they but mistake the meaning for the slough and slink of lies’ cruel amber.