Fire Break

beyond the fire break
the woods are burning
columns of dark smoke
snaking fingers into the hazy sky

the heat of the summer day
becomes choking
the crackle of pine trees
becomes deafening

the forest screams
in the throws of an unstoppable force

as the night falls
the heat remains
and the vast fires
turn the skies red as false dawn

a boiling licking tongue
scrapes the blood red moon
the world speaks a language of dry tinder
moaning in burning ecstasy

behind the blackened columns of cinder
with a face streaked in ash
I listen to the forest die and be reborn
and in turn chase my mind
to thoughts of driving rain

If only there was water
If only there was no fire but water
If only water drowned us all
If only...

The landscape aflame twists in whirls of smoke
a wall of fire rages
I turn my face
everything explodes
I drop my head and run

I feel that fire reaching for me even now
with dancing digits of orange
rain forever just a dim wish
I wake choking on imaginary smoke
and see all the world burning behind my eyes

I sit upright
and through clenched teeth
wish for death by drowning

Milk and Honey

I have fed on milk and honey
sweetness sticking to my lips
gently dripping down my chin
rivulets flowing along my neck
collecting in the curve of my bosom

I have tasted you and known sugar
our lips meeting like the petals of a closing flower
your mouth dipping to my breast
your hands sliding down my hips
we have lapped at each other in a moment of quivering weakness

we have shared that weakness like a drug
breathing heavily in a near breathless moment
skin taking on a glowing sheen in the dancing candle light
silken hair draped over the exotic satins of the bed
your fingertips enchanted with music

it is here that I was transported to another place
another time where my heart was light and my soul unfettered
when my Eros stood unchallenged by rough voices
and I could see clearly through that sheer top you wore
to your soft breasts beneath

I could see your heart beating through your chest
your pulse racing up your throat
we stood in that throbbing mass
twisting to the beat of a demigod in plastic
sliding bodies moving without measure or restriction
and loved each other as only disasters could

now as you lay panting in my arms
I drift between coffee-coloured worlds of movement and stillness
our limbs tangled like ripe vines
our breathe sweet with honey
I capture this moment in the slow sap of my mind
and never let you go

The Furies Bring the Serpents

"Bring me the skin of David," she said

a scream that was heard
from ancient hill to ancient hill
shuddering in the distance

blessed are the cursed
for they know the truth

Erinyes
their voices one
awash in anger
serpents on their tongues
death in their eyes

all the world held a shuddering breath
each wing beat to the movement of blood
each eye an accusation waiting

borne of night
every drop on the ground a resurrection
twisting in her image with a sword in each hand
many heads but one eye
many eyes but one head

underworld, Orestes
that is where you go
to the gates of Dis
where they stand in judgment
one heart beating in many chests
an eye turned on you
an eye of madness
your hand still on the weapon
your mother's breath barely gone
forever

you fed on soft milk
and knew the cursed

Athena, stay your hand
Athena, let them be
let us be renewed in hate
a curse dancing feverishly on our lips
for they have put their will upon us
and we can never rest

here Furies wait
in the violence of every lifted hand
know they are the serpents
in the eyes of your victims
and their anger will never ever cease
when we open our mouths
and let that curse spill out at your feet

retelling the story

this is the happiest moment of your life
you are so very happy
so very fucking happy

i am afraid
afraid that you are reading this and not telling me
i am afraid you have found me out
found me under this pile of rubble i have named my soul
my heart in pieces like a collapsed building
the structure buckling under the pressure
pressurized hate in the form of soft words
i will build a kingdom of letters
and an army of sentences with no punctuation

i am stripping my clothing off
i am doing it slowly
seductively
sliding silk down my skin like a waterfall
scent curls around me softly
lifts me to my own hands
running down the length of my legs
kneading the flesh under my fingertips
slipping into another space
a different place in the world of my mind
i drift
and i do not come up for air

you are just so happy
the smile is cutting your face in half
cutting across your vision
she's everything you ever dreamed of
so young
so nubile
so lithe
so thin
such perky tits
such sexual energy
such a game you play

i darken your day with my passing
i am a rain cloud
heavy
a lightening strike smoldering in the ground
a crater to inevitability
to discomfort
i am not thin
my breasts sag with the weight of age
they sway in a mesmerizing hypothesis of damaged reality
my stomach is round with a life lived rather than a life denied
the scars that dance across the pale expanse of my epidermis
whirl like spinning dervishes of pain and story

here!
this is where my leg run afool of a large rock in the swimming hole
this is where my cat dug his claws into my arm in a moment of fear
this is where pain took me over and i sliced away at myself
trying to find the truth
trying to find the exit
look here!
this is where i split open and the entire universe fell out
i am a mother in the stars with no children
i birth only ideas
ideas and eroticism that has grown useless in the intervening years
i am breathing stardust
coughing on emotional warfare
and throwing it back up
the river flows out of me in a wave of blood
and falls back down to earth
i have crept forward and stood in the light

i manage this every few years
every few years i manage this resurrection
every few years the feelings reemerge
i feel for you again
i open myself with the tiniest crack
and i let you in
every time i regret it
i regret the light seeping into the back of my eyes
and i regret your words most of all
maybe i am finally finished with you
with all of you

i am living for myself now
i am living for the ecstasy of the Idea
the moment when word forms the Idea
when speech fails but the Idea remains
when the logic of it becomes
the most erotic eruption in this space
these references to other poets
our Ideas existing
just being
being

your happiness means nothing to me now
i eat men like fire
and only the Idea remains
i am the erotic in my own right
and i exist alone
in a world
without
you

Altered Ego

I just want you to know
I have found your secrets
and I have hardened myself against them

words fly out of your mouth
with a slickness
that once unnerved me

now I find your sputtering
with your self-importance
a distraction to my isolation

i still seek you out everyday
but with a limit to my emotions
that curls around my head like smoke

your eyes are cardboard circles
on your doll face
and your lips are always open

I have found your secrets
and know you with an intimacy
only discomfort can bring

I dream like a ghost
and only love the wrong ones

My Red Dress

the terrain of your hand surprised me
each vein a road to damnation
a winding movement to my own futility

the twist of your wrist around my ankle was startling
your skin cold like dirty ice
with you at my feet I felt wavering

swooning at your intellect
and subservience

you had fashioned your want into a shiny black reverberation
a fetish for form and slipping;
a slipping of hands up skirts

hark demon! hark devil!
my own erotic trembling the last right of my body
i control all and nothing

in that throbbing moment
i knew
that i had to stop you
before you could reach up
and undo the few remaining buttons on my red dress

i had to stop you before you reached that prize
your satisfaction could only be my undoing
and your eyes hold no love
in the demonic reflection of my glittering soul

close the door tightly when you leave
i need the quiet to go on