lips of sapphire
thy holy breath,
repeating psalms
and whispering hymns
in the deep night
still laced with
fragrant folly
devour the sun, and all the honey of the spring that brought the hummingbird soliloquies...
soft as the massacre of troy
my brother once showed me a piece of quartz that contained, he said, some trapped water older than all the seas in our world. he held it up to my ear. "listen," he said, "life and no escape."
as if i did not know
as if i wasn't just another wishing jewel
a prophet with no religion
apollo, apollo!
god of all ways, but only death's to me
i think of you with the most excruciating tenderness
for you left a balcony inside of me that no one passes in front of for me to greet
my tongue is like a pomegranate. shall i open it over you and let it scatter, seed by seed: red pearls befitting a tragedy that asks nothing of me except a farewell?
hell, purgatory, paradise
i shall warn, but you shan't cave
i have suffered from an abnormal thirst
like a widow /
night reaches to touch what it can't
an amalgam of sex-hunger and care-hunger, greedy not only to be fucked and paid but, most unforgivably of all, to be noticed
she who scorns gifts, will send them still
though she do it against her will
and how do you get rid of this sortilege
that has no beginning, no end, like God?
they placed two of my molars, all stripped&bare
in the so called temples of purity,
and pigged out on them
and these are the dents, the blood of scavenge
the marks of possession
you smiled like a wolf, like a hunting rifle (you can run but you can't hide and oh darling, the foxes are coming)
their horses wear the shoes from their hooves and their dogs are on the scent. let them come – let them trample the grass of the hills, sound trumpets and spread like wildfire. we will see who is the gun and who is the gunsmoke, who is the hunter and who is the hunted
there is no metaphor for any of this
the vinca blossoms like deep bruises among the green
color of dragonfly wings, it sits on the far side of the simile,
the like that's like the like
ultravioleta untethered—
who blames me
for gathering my own together
and setting flame under their feet
who
blames me
as i send a ripple through the mantle,
and together with the sea
create a tremor so devastating
all that is shall bleed
when her children hit the ground,
mother intercedes
don't listen to Cassandra,
they said,
she's crazy,
they said
apollo,
you who wanted me naked, ah!
— the aril in my fingers— the sun— in my mouth
am I a pretty bird now?
