Ritual Enactments

TRASH BURNINGS

The subject: forgotten rituals,

how in shirtsleeves

I carried the kitchen trash through brittle snow

and lit it,

expectant,

knowing the cold’s first shudder

would shrink my crotch

and start intestinal spasms,

how then the wait for crumbled cinders to darken

would suggest shapes

outside the circle of fire

and I must run for the doorway

or lose to wolves.