There’s a bright thread

(for the dead / all those other lights)

that runs/this dim year | a threat maybe/its twinning

the twin/ year comes /I’m busy
being angry/time/dustleaves behind/knowing
| a switch inside |

my body/seeps/it seeps/stemming/then shuts | each bare bulb/down staring somewhere

another century/caput/some plant deadlipped/stubbly/ (we’re taking electricity
not talking anymore) each plant had/some portion/its lifetaking capacity
| to fool/be fooled/foil/befoiled |

there shootcrawl out/a single stem/sametwin
| year we’re walking/thoughts | bodypressed again
networked/worthed / treebare unknowable / unfathomed
| feed bag/my feed/begging-my-feed/begins |

daystressed/growing
more/voices/(“voices” is
| the wrong/language)/feedgrow longer/more imagetext/more-tisements |

target things/I’d searched/buzzingbowl/the world/been narrowed/
same what numbers/think/I like/think numbers are now/knowing better

us each hour/grey/ and they sweat/(stage/worry
| stress less than we can) |

I list the dead/unfamous people
| against the list/days longer/longing|
(people communicate with
| the love/they won) |
their loved ones (working eversame

| through so much other layered |
crotch touching/disaster)
| label phases/phrasewrong/reconstitute |
boxes/(I close out the sound

screened)
| one click |
timeforward/ravels down this ravine/bulbs go all/one on once
| this darkening plan(e)t |
one places it/in their pocket/

the view /ablink/from space)
| when it’s time/stop looking |
each day/dark grows
|back/light/lit|

Tony Mancus is the author of a handful of chapbooks and his first full length collection will be out from The Magnificent Field in 2021. He lives in Colorado with his wife, son, and three yappy cats and serves as chapbook editor for Barrelhouse.