the knife saws back along skin’s edge seaming its rent robes
back together the blood crawls back up the groin testicles unhack
blood the frost gives it back up and keeps giving it back up
the dogs spit up chunks of bloody deer heart unsnarling
and the barking comes back in their chest as nothing but rattle
the comealong wench cranks back down the hook out the tendon
the antler-crowned head thumps the ground my fourteen
yearold back shoving him through the mudrut back to the truck
flinging him bodily in the bed back down the dirt road
tires popping rocks bringing down the dust daddy’s cigarette
unflings itself comes back burning through the cracked window
like a small torch that can’t burn bright enough and won’t die out
plumes of steam swirl back into my mouth thick tongue back
the paleness comes back the redness leaving like the snags of cloud
slipping silently breaking over the back of wolverton mountain
back to the stand the percussive thud melts out of the air echoing
my daddy’s grin leaks away that rare that possum grin it’s gone
flecks of blood explode back into the deer chest back into the hung skeleton
back into the string of veins gun barrel chokes on its white hot cough
my finger untrembles lets go the trigger bring back the big breath
unclench the gun unload the bullet unclimb the stand draw back the call’s grunt
until I’m just a boy walking under a winter-ash sky behind my daddy
saying how the clouds hang like catfish heads on a trotline