The Sword of Mars

autumn brings out the red sword of mars
under a harvest moon cuts raw meat
soul-butchery
like an animated corpse-
when the magic is gone,
the body collapses and is reclaimed by the ground.

i hope you can keep yourself together until spring
until spring, until that sun
rises over behind the shed again
and paints all the world with all its pretty flowers;
i hope you can keep yourself together until
the green arms of life arrive.