Dead City Christmas

i cannot pass the answer
what the bullet will ask
where an inch every glance
and time is five cigarettes
the dead city is burying
its voices at last
Havens's lost and it's scurried
among walls, in the dust

Christmas came, after all
the basement is dark
gone are so many souls
from the window's mark
i forgot that in nature
there is something else
on the sixth there was nascence
of the six--minus six

and in the morning snow fell
after long lasting flame
and that snow it killed me well,
put the century away
i had gathered it in hand
spit the dirt and dust on white
is it truth or is it lie
infinite or has it stank

this strange city had not crossed
even falling to death
the dead city had gone drunk
on life right before fast
here the stars are concussed
burning new Bethlehem
here the birches are swaddles
though not for all of them

Merry Christmas, my Iron!
bandage like wreath
Nurse Teresa, my darling
with beautiful face
just last night, like a rustle
those days you recalled
when the drapes you pulled
where you were all alone

and in the morning snow fell
after long lasting flame
and that snow it killed me well,
put the century away
i had gathered it in hand
spit the dirt and dust on white
is it truth or is it lie
infinite or has it stank

i cannot pass the answer
what the bullet will ask
where an inch every glance
and time is five cigarettes
the dead city with its
empty eyes is with me
i was shooting blank fires
yesterday i still lived