Instructions

She says, drink where I drink, where
The ghosts of deer go.

Drink their shy silhouettes in watery vertigo and
Ride their wet fur and
Kiss their salty eyes
Under the nefarious light.

A firefly steals the one spider web
Whose elastic orb re-threads Linnaeus’s quilt and
Whose piano strings bind wing to wing.

This is your map, she says, my maze,
That takes us back to our nest of sleep,
To the dizzy embers of fire and fireflies
And shaded silhouettes.

Take this spider map, this sinuous map.
Take this so you can find me,
Find me always
Where the ghosts of deer go.