beswamped, the heart

i offer you a tiny muscular poem from claire hero's intricate-haunting chapbook, afterpastures:

[Beswamped, the heart]

Beswamped, the heart
—in darkness, leaf by leaf—
blanches, a lantern
to light this bonethicket
& the little path of crumbs
away, away, —

what intrigues me about this piece is its absolute compactness, its matchbook feeling—the possibility of something extreme concealed within something so small (all those thin sticks just waiting to flame).

i meant to put this up yesterday as part of a weekly-intended-post—wednesdays are for the words. but then, i was forgetting that yesterday was a wednesday at all. 
i will try to be better next week.

{image via the ever-cool caketrain, who rockingly published some of my poems last fall}