=scalped grass, trepanned soil,  
granite folds, gray, like a bare brain;

a collision of lilacs with lilac anti-matter;

the apple tree null with its perfume  
when everything fogged with mildew.

=a mutter when the backhoe idles, 
mind-devouring decibels when it moves; 

or TNT, as infant apples  
like pebbles = shrapnel; a sudden, public 

subtraction from the backstory
of family life, old stone cellar with its fuse box,

fruit jars, potato bin, cistern.

=an addition, as if we’d buried slaves
or a calf, alive, beneath cement.