sexual predators

dieing cities suffering the last of pale moonlight

decaying

in the tangle of limbs
the gentle lattice work of window frames

cast on upturn faces
flushed

with temptation to flicker fingers
over the gentle humming
of predator songs

where shadows embed
themselves in words

and unused emotions
stand in witness
to the last violence
committed on these endless shores

a little female Rage

i am a Woman

my body is a black (w)hole
drawing everything near me
to the inside of me

and tearing it to pieces

a gravitational love
a thousand directions at once

appearing here
and exploding outwards
on the other side of the galaxy

in a deep black universe
one luminous pin-point
in so many stars

a burning heart for a burning sky
back on earth

girl

i saw her standing there
nervously rubbing her palms
over her thighs
biting her lip
looking side to side
her dress clinging at her knees
mud splashed up her legs

i wanted to
i wanted to touch her
i wanted to hold her

but i knew that
would make everything
so much worse

fairytale

if this were a new world
and these were our first steps
upon these fabled shores
we would know
that we could not face Her armies
and survive

but in the ignorance and knowledge
of foreign empires
we advanced as if there was nothing
in us to lose
as if the fires surrounding the towers
did not mirror the fire in Her eyes

as if She did not know
that no matter how wicked our hearts
or how vigilant our minds
that Her crimson lips and ebony hair
would stand always as a gleaming beacon
on darkened hills

that could outnumber our quickening breaths
and summon us to our deaths

bed sheet goddess

you explored the hollows of
her stomach
and wished for a roundness
to swell there
for her breasts to
grow tender

you lay your head just below her ribs
willing another heartbeat

with your knees on the white sheets
hands on either side of her hips
you mouthed against her belly

a name
a single name

again and again

her fingers may have been in your hair
her eyes fading in the soft light

but you knew

(o' sweet mother of my children)
you will never see Louisiana

Insect Soft

I am face down in the dirt
dreaming of soft moist bodies
sectional lives
cut in half and still moving

and of scurrying little multiplicities of legs
brushing together
in chirping songs of longing

hard little bodies
with soft little insides

softer still than my own hands
crushing iridescent little shells

painting my face in their remains

I am a God among insects
with now iridescent shells for eyes

Queen to beetles

whose love songs
carry over vast distant landscapes
and never ever end

the unending

embedded in a darker planet
frozen at the center
of my own ignorance

i shattered the silence
of a thousand red fires
glowing in the heart of every sinner

who is my child
and also my only lover

separated by the endless black
of an uncaring universe
and trapped like the
burning stars in my eyes

where white light is the only torture
and the utterance of a thousand sighs
is only the patience to break unalterable law

mutilation

palms down
gripping my legs
fingers splayed wide
nails dug in
when the hands
were pried away
left little half moons
in angry red

Inspired

her Legs

i wanted to thank
all of the time
but i lacked will
and He had told me
i had Beauty
but no grace
so i lacked confidence as well

but her Legs

each purple vein on white velvet skin
was a path demanding exploration
each gentle curve
requiring navigation
a soft pace
her skirt brushing her knees
a meandering land where i wanted to find home
and lay my head in easy comfort

Empty Houses

I am trying
to clear this little space

for you

in this empty house
my heart

empty in my reasons

a passing
a particular line of your shoulders

the borderlands of my love
a listlessness of my own wronging
longing to be right

little crooked house
my heart

please let us stand
and move in this one swift motion

please take me home

Hyacinth

you once told me
that you pictured me
in some tropical place
walking a road to a beach
with a hyacinth in my hair


you were probably too drunk
to remember that moment clearly


busy marveling at my willingness
to walk barefoot
on city streets

you may have never known
that single clear memory
etched itself on to my heart
and i feared that it would never happen

you may have never known
how i spent the next year
desperately searching for the words
to tell you
just how much i loved you

i still think of that moment
and mouth those words
through bitter hyacinth tears
to the empty space
where you should be

Armor

on nights
such as these
i only wish
to hold you tight

lest you evaporate
from my arms
as i have
so very often feared

for in my experience
evaporation is unquestionable

here
i would be vacant
little left
but a hollow smile
twisted upright
slashed across my face

your sleeping form
is the only thing
that holds me to this world
on treacherous nights
such as these

i am lying by your side
praying
for the dawn to never come

Sudden Understanding

you were not the only man i stood naked for in that doorway

your guilt is your own problem
and i am indifferent
now caught on to a new game

red tides on cold mornings
listening to bird songs
and i am still naked

am still a shimmering doorway

----

o' little bird
the cat would snap your neck
if she only had a chance

Heartland

from the coast that bore me
in the womb of green needles
and the dark brown scent of ashen bark
where cedar trees sing
of the wet winds on cold nights
and the lights across the water
call to me from the shore

to the homelands that cradled me
with the warmth of ancient fir trees
praying to clear skies with soft clouds
near the circle of stones
where lichens creep with the slowness of ages
and the echoes of water over rock
sound of far off voices

if I should ever leave this place
I fear that I shall never know peace
that I shall birth no other land
and my hands will never rest
may my soul linger here
forever in the twilights of the West
with these sentinel forests ever living within my dreams

This Dirty City

my horizon
affected by your memories
standing here

this dirty city
stretching before me
feeling your breath in my ear

i am trying hard
very hard

closing my eyes
touching the cold glass
trying to reconcile
your past with my present

i am here
i swear i am here

if i were you
i would hold on to me tighter

Saint

as I explored between the legs of dawn
(face up to the burning reflection of sky)
I caught sight of the luscious fold of her lips

delicate in their poison curve
pulled back to offer
the barest slip of tongue between teeth
exposing a terrain left unexplored by hasty lovers

(with rough hands and hoarse voices)

so sweet the bend
that lilted her words
towards my own admiration

and I dared to dream
that through the divinity of her tooth and tongue and lip
that I (the lover) could pay for my sins
with the naked hardness of her body

green eyes

my kitten cleans
his paws
and tucks his nose
into his tail

i suspect
that the truth
of worlds
lurk behind those sparkling green eyes

bus sex

i am finding myself
with a desperate urge
to run my fingers
up the back of your legs
to just under the edge
of your o' so short skirt

a reaction generally frowned upon
on public transit

funny how these inappropriate little ideas
find their way into my smile

i wrote this song and gave it to god...

Swing Axe

i have bent to one knee
to see her god in the trees
pale as moonlight
wicked as stars
and twice as sharp of tongue

she says
'you are aging as you stand
in the face of my glory
with eyes of this blazing sun
eyes of blazing sun'

i have bent at the middle
to see her god in the river
her feet bare
as she walks over my grave
with delicate footsteps

she says
'you are wilting as you stand
in the face of my glory
with eyes of this burning sun
eyes of burning sun'

i have bent down
and come up again
with my swing axe
set to chopping down her trees
and stopping up her river
while cursing all her ways

she says
'you are damned as you stand
in the face of my glory
and your eyes have set the sun
eyes of setting sun