Mouthing secrets

"since I have learned not to kill them
things have been easier
though I prefer my ghosts
to inhabit the dark
if they come by dayI’ll leave all the doors open
I watch them mouthing secrets
smiling as if there were two heavens
I recall simple equations in the heart’s circumference
each sum exquisitely fixed in my memory
women in sweet and sudden rages
for fear the future comes when they're not looking
children claustrophobic in their skins
fanning out like fish bones
younglings piercing love’s delicate membrane
to taste the fleshy center
friends in the gray solfeggio of autumn
and the ritual smile
in their company the hours pass
until a spill of sun a sweep of shade
and under the ashen stars
my dead are growing old"