Winter Dunes

half dune, half prairie
her body gets heavy
praying to Lake Michigan,

that lapsed incarnation
of a dream
of a belly
that once, long ago,
was a sea

sliver moon

you charm,
filed fine by the year
worn still finer by the hour,

we children,
fathered by days
mothered by nights,

feel you crumble on our skin

fires feed

fires must feed
on seams of black
the dark dream billowing
the dream,
a wild mouth of bone glisten
the dream, a mouth of gristle
the dream, your worst,
burning close and clean