In response to my call for “close reads” on the Ruth Lilly fellows earlier today, Joseph Goosey sends us some examinations of the phrases used in this bit by a dude by the tag of Joseph Spece.

Among Elks
BY JOSEPH SPECE

Woke in the brume,
lilacs like turf stars.

The late fawn
standing in his syrups;

bucks down the swale
chewing sedge.

We move south
to slopes of sleeping poppy,

past the white alder,
bending heads to scent

of calx—in natural dark
a man tries his hand

at belonging. He
with greave of hide, a born

hood, lay with three
spikes in the clay, green

peak in the breeze.
He whose breathing

wrongs the still.
You stir now to mend,

to redress?
To be one of us, after all this?

Take a word on this from Joseph after the break.

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