Destroyer

we left on air mail wings
two stowaways on the southern mail
flying war flags
dreamed on sacks of mail
while drifts of letters
brewed and swirled in the steel belly
rivets shined and tuned like bells
and the morning hangs like carnations
over the blue dark,
the foundation of morning, the sea

and as the skyscrapers unwind behind me
cumulonimbus creatures scraping the horizon
and the sun blurs like a propeller
radial coin in the east
whole cities starved in a day
towers full of kings,
crowns that clawed the stars
some rule with letters
intact, swallowing water greedy under the noon sun
some lost mad in the dust
plates of boar, cups of dust
ground fine between the sun's peacock eyes
and the well's empty throat

our red heraldry
marks us a destroyer, a forgetter
king's commands carefully packed
and born on steel horse engines --
let it sleet into the sea!
the white flutter of law
will pour out our eyes
boasts and damnation by the sack