Tiamat

it's just so hard to need you
when this Velvet Darkness
drapes it's ever loving arms
around me

this primordial chaos
I wear like a cloak
all stars for eyes
and the bodies of dead lovers
my crown

I walk the line
between smoke
from the fire you started
to the burning feeling
in the back of your throat

I am tempted daily
to let this malice
taking over my hands
clench in admiration
or violence

this is a celestial recrimination
yes I am talking down to you
and in dragon scales
and dragon breath
I huff and I puff
and I blow your house on down

the wreck
the devastation
peeled back to watch
the skin wrinkle
and ignite
signal fire to the milky way

you talk like someone
who has never been
smashed in the mouth
but I have your remedy
big as all days
twice as hard as carbon
twice as evil as love

hell, I burn the scenery
just to watch you melt
into that puddle
of unnerving need
small squeaks placating my toes
splish splash
dripping fucking need

Dragon Goddess
right here in this moment
so close
you can feel her
hot gasps on your neck

all scales
are a measure
in green iridescence
of the worth of the man
and my right over your nature

your are the snake
I am the Dragon
at war with judgement
hot and shifting
cliff to those who jump
sharp teeth to those who swallow

liar, it's so hard to need you
when I am not a saint
but the crater in the back
of your skull
take this moment
unneeded
but so fucking needy

inhale

it's too hard to need you

exhale

fire

ignite

all Velvet

and fire

and curling downward forever
shifts
and breaks all the Earth
from under your trembling feet

Bone Picker

splintered in you need

I have the remedy

I keep it under my knuckles

With my dragon scales

And eat lonely boys like foul candy

And burn 

When I just can't need you anymore

And it's just too hard to forget

Dinner Time with the Devil

those Devils show me who they love
through a forest of sharp teeth
grinning all hungry
straight at me
lip lickers them all

they tell their friends
'that bitch poet
down the road
she never told us anything
worth hearing'

'that bitch poet
had big tits
and one too many questions
we had to eat her up
and leave her wanting more'

this bitch poet
knows just what those Devils
are saying
their harsh whispers
carry on the stale night air

hush hush you fuckers
I hate the daylight
and curse the sun every morning
when those Devils
settle into their beds with their new lovers

this bitch poet
has opened her mouth
and let a crucible
of carrion
fall at their feet in the name of fun

this bitch poet
stayed up all night
lamenting big trucks
barreling down the alleyway
when the drugs had worn off

this bitch poet
this Wicked Witch of East Van
this worst kind of heaven
this ghost with green eyes
this mountain of a woman

she knows just how to cut
right under the ribs
straight in a shower of blood
and nightly dreams
of just the best way to kill them

this bitch
pulled the moon down for you
and choked you on it
rammed it down your throat
dancing to the gurgling

this bitch
is a tower to that dark Goddess
and hates you
you Devil you
with all her little black heart

and she hopes you die tonight
before that warrior sun
kills all her dreams
because this bitch poet down the road
just wants to go to bed

and forget any of this ever happened

Blister

I have been picking at my skin
digging with my dirty nails
down through layers
of meat
somewhere underneath there
the itch
is growing
inch by inch
and I can't get there
fast enough

you are a blister
pus filled
and oozing
I see
that green blood streaked
fluid
sloshing behind your eyes
I want to cut you open
and watch your juices run out

you have infected me
with all your vile
slimy
swamp toad ways
warts and all

if I kiss you
I won't get a prince
I'll get a mouthful
of sick
and ulcerated tissue
you are the acid kiss
that eats away at my gums
and breaks my teeth

 I've been digging away
at my skin for years now
ripping the scabs off
poking at the sore spots
watching the bruises bloom
deepest purple black
and still all I taste
is acid

you are a blister
more putrid than pure
and where your flaking skin falls
fungus grows
to mark the spot
where your soul
started to fester

your fetid love
is a boil
on my ass
and when I sit upon it
I can feel
all the pain you wished upon me
and still I find myself
gagging on
your ever searching
swamp water tongue
and I beg for more

Hoof

war spit
curly haired motherfucker
came down here
to tell me
what was what

and then fell in love
with his best friend

I stomped
snorted
growled
turned my head
and groaned

hey now come on
smoke skin
I saw you coming
right up over that ridge
on the train bridge
in the middle of the night

'Can I come home with you?'
you're so fucking pretty
you think I haven't seen
those same mountians
I was born here
straight from the boulders
in the valley

we climbed them
stomping
the herd
clicking
their heels
down the road

and when that horse 
died on the fence
we saved her skull
and the old farmer
more practical than us  
said she had many foals

our wars were over a hundred years ago
those hooves still echo
over long buried battlefields
ghosts still wander this land
from a far flung tradition
to yours

stagger 
too much liquor
and even quicker
tried to bite me  
and that old dusty
toppled down
church
reared up in my head
and the thorny wild roses
made a canopy
of green and pink
and I only ever saw you after dark
when our worlds
attempted with rather futile measures
to blend
and failed

and in this old land
with new people
in this broken down
cracked right up
leaking and seeping
body
I heard them running
hoof to packed dirt
and let you go
over that rocky cliff face
in spirit
more Devil
than I was ever any kind of good   

    

From Hell to Breakfast

the kingdom came
under my skin
i saw light
through the bullet holes
ice pick awl
eyeball heaven
and a kiss
so subtle
that it never happened
a flutter
of lips
so soft
they tasted like
ripe strawberries
rotting
on the vine
sick and sweet
and leaking
down your chin
fluid
fills the walls
and they burst
gushing
black liquid
filling the room
in its slimy
swamp song
where dead bodies
bloat
and split open
with flies
taking to the air
in iridescent swarms
blackberry canes
hiding sweet treasures
amongst cruel thorns
bits of meat
hanging
so foolish to reach
you lost your hand
in there
the teeth snapped shut
and the grass swayed
with indifference
that slip of birds' wings
past my neck
that putrid
scent on the air
the rushing of water
over my toes
rusty nails
singing in the wind
the holes
stuffed up with dead leaves
the kingdom came
and with Hell for a name
fell to the doors
of that great emptiness
and underneath it all
the worms
and the beetles
and the ants
moved the world forward
on their backs
and down in our wet graves
we saw Heaven
dissolve
the Sun
put her eyes out
and at the end
of it all
became the bile
that turned the universe

Shades of Hate

i'm just a little bit unnatural
difficult
pregnant with rain
all dark cloud
thundering
over you

i'm just a little bit violent
tasteless
full of chittering
never taking the easy way
always sputtering
locked up tight

i'm just a little bit hateful
i tried on love
but it chafed
not on me
but you
you are a blister

i'm just a little bit amused
at your bloody nose
that I put there
with the kiss
of a fist
so pretty

i'm just a little bit spiteful
never been big on reality
you don't want to come in here
you don't want to know what I keep
all locked up
where no one can see

i'm just a little bit frightening
much too hard to trust
much too wild to hold onto
i love like a hurricane
and send stop signs
through your neck

i'm just a little bit destructive
i crush the roof
of your peaceful palace
i rip holes
in your favorite clothes
i stomp on your toes
and never say sorry

in absolute truth
I'm not a little bit of anything
I am everything
Godzilla leveling buildings
Scathach killing kings
Lilith eating souls
Kali crushing worlds

I am Everything
and in this vast nothingness
of my heart
I rule All
and see you futile men
die before me

The Dead City

her body in the woods
naked and filthy
new flies unfurling
their iridescent wings
flicking to flight
in the green heat
stars catching all the hate
in her flat black eyes
her mouth is empty
soil where her tongue
once settle against her teeth

they call this place
Dead City
The Axe Handle Burroughs
Blood Smear Avenue
12 Gauge Park

hey, down here
we got this thing
called the psychopathic checklist
you score high
and you got a job for life
with the city council
hope you like the taste of
gun oil and brass

the ditch just outside
the fences
final resting place
the belt still tight
against strained muscles
Petechiae smiles
and knife wound kisses
they named her
the Ditch Water Bride
never able to close her eyes
with her eyelids all gone

Yeah, down here in Dead City
babes in the woods
are a common site
and shotguns
grow like weeds
buried in the forest
wrapped in burlap fertilizer
they sprout up
if you know where to dig

lily bones
decorate the bridges
down here
never mind the names
feet wash up on the beaches
rotted and stinking
children play with them
like footballs
the ghosts chatter
in the distant hills
spitting their indifference
down to the Native villages
our murderous ancestors
thought were theirs to take

brains on the railway tracks
two bodies for the price of one
facts and lies
are all the same around here
that sound you hear
that's the sound of the L train
going straight to Hell
yeah, down here
God has crooked teeth
and chews on raw bone sinew
red streaks in the pavement
we call meat love
and we all know the dark places to avoid

we don't want no tourists around here
so go on to your safe little homes
and shut your eyes tight
behind your gated communities
and white bread security raids
go on, pretend everything is all right

down here in Dead City
there's a skull-cracking good time to be had
and the Devil
let's us know he's still around
he's got that big old grin
and when his mouth falls open
terror seeps into the world
and all us murderers and thieves
we know we still got a place
to call Home

The Amazing Disposable Woman

I sit up in my kingdom of sickness
day after day
and look out over the alley way
that leads to somewhere else

I sit here and old conversations
drift through my head
I rarely speak
and when I do my voice cracks

Old promises broken
with the intention of never being kept
nocturnal admissions
never meant to be heard
quiet murmuring echoing
in the chambers of my bedroom
fingers still brushing my skin
shifting over my body
little smiles
and tears clinging to long eyelashes

He said I was too much
took up that doorway
like a storm
emotions rolling off me
like a drowning wave
still naked
still standing there
Jesus was not meant for anything better

He told me he felt like a sexual superhero
like a dark hipster poet god
all the girls loved
when I looked at him that way
I made him feel strength
as he brushed his fingers
over the knife wounds on his chest
and remembered my lips upon him

He whispered how he imagined me
slipping down a road in some tropical country
with hyacinths in my hair
marveled as I walked barefoot
through city streets
danced me to the end of the night
careful to avoid my crystalline ways

He kissed me under a street light
kept his hands on my wide hips
no matter where I went
we woke the neighbors
told me beauty like mine
was hard to swallow
and refused to sleep at my side

He extolled the virtue
of my green eyes
seemingly hypnotized by their wavering colour
like a drowning whirlpool
hiding in some green still lake
told me I was out to pull him under
just the same
cried in  my arms
and asked me to not hate him

how can I not hate
when love has led me to
the most vile
regions of my heart?
how can I not pledge myself
to this emptiness
when emotions
are the poison
my clouded mind
seeks to swallow?
how do I live
in the shadow of another
when he sees my body
as a home
and refuses to see
the cracks in the foundation?
how can I be beautiful
when they spit out my name
and wash me
from their throats?

in here
with no prying eyes
i am perfectly flawed
and my halo
is carefully stowed away
i am Queen
to the dust
and Empress of pain
they will call me wicked
in the fires of falsified love
carry the scars I left on their skin
remember the quickness of my licking tongue
the softness of my thighs

but I will
still be
undone
and never
beautiful
with my wild black hair
and my treacherous green eyes
my villainous snow white skin
and my deceptive softness

my empire is built of trash
and i will
throw myself away
before you ever
get the chance

Apocalypse Right Now

I sat in quiet contemplation
of the futility of human existance
our great weapons
pointed right down our throats
a brand new way
to kill ourselves

when I moved to the city
I lost the stars
so I couldn't watch dead light
invade my eyes
I had to meditate to
dull grey walls
and rain beating down
on broken sidewalks

sometimes,
just sometimes,
cities empty out
all the people leave
the windows are boarded up
the buildings crumble
a church of pointlessness
a shrine to vanity

no stars shine
up from under those broken skulls
empty eyes
walk the road to Hell
holding hands
shaking in the face
of an Angry god
called Pointlessness

clasp your hands
try to convince me that this is better
that you have the fucking answers
just under your fucking tongue
you are just as desolate
but somehow you convinced yourself
that you were still alive

I want you to know
I saw how you die
I saw just how fucking stupid you are
tin men all lined up
under the great firing sky
burning in the name of peace
I saw how you die
and licked my lips
at the thought of it

in sickness
I know the answers
closer in pain
to the reality
of our ineffectiveness
sold to the raw deal
convinced of their importace
but we are a gutter
for all things in us perish
God lives and he hates you
the world coughs up black clouds
and chews us down
with blood red teeth

and will be reborn
without us
to get in the way

Ugly God

chitter chitter chitter
you taste is so bitter

I want to spit you out
I want to vomit up
the vile bile you force
down my raw throat

your semen is acid
your smile a skeletal parody
tap tap tapping
ugly fingers on my skull

and I am in the thrall
twisting my spine
until the vertebrae crack
snicker snack

i will wither
on my haunches
blood streaming down my thighs
I fight the sigh the moans the cries

you make me die
little angry god
with his little angry fists
pounding away at me

chit chit twit twit
flashing those red eyes at me
I can see
right down to your toes

and I am vomiting
spitting hitting back writhing
riding this out
my jaw clenched and my hatred sealed

jug jug twit twit
my ugly god
I am before you
sacrificed like a lamb

I am before you
pieces now
I infect you now
and make you choke

on my ever spreading smoke
you burned me
but I came back as ash
sucked the oxygen from the room

and while you grasp at your throat
rasp at the door
know I saw you before
and made this all happen

just to see you chitter
and wither on that endless floor

Lilith

my vaginal canal is lined with razor teeth
my sex is an ever devouring shark
I give birth to the grotesque
many limbs
many heads
many blinking eyes
Lucifer loved me
Adam despised me
I attacked the cities by the sea
I fled to the mountains
and birthed my horrors
I am mother to monsters
the rage of every dominated woman
my children consume the offspring
of that tyrannical god
I am the dark Goddess
the demon queen
I chewed through my ropes
heaved myself over the wall
and spat on the doorstep of paradise
they fell
and we feasted upon them
when there was light
also was bred darkness
and my soul is imbued with it
I am the breeder of nightmares
long hair a tangle of thorns
white rose and my bloodied breath
and so great predators
gathered under me
his puppets tried to slay the great serpent
tried to prevent my fertility
but I came screaming down upon them
my gates were gates of death
and those who came to me
can not return to life
they came only to enter the Pit
and watched me kiss the mouth of Samuel
we are nephilim
the sparse pale moon my sister
I howled through the wind
chased fatted hypocrites
on their wobbling legs
over the hills of my own vengeance
I ate their hearts without fear
I stood on their graves
and terrified their children
I am the Other God
the Blind Dragon
and my femininity
will fill up all the holes
of his most imperfect savage world

Cronus

i just want to eat you
i am so fucking hungry
so hungry
i can feel my insides
warring with themselves
and i just want
to devour your skin
taste your muscles
lick your eyes
allow the warm
coppery wash
of your blood
to coat my throat
i want you
like salt
wants meat
i want you
like teeth
want sinew
i can't stop
wanting
i'm just so hungry
the heat
is coming up
from inside me
to shatter me
make me
ravenous
Wendigo
i want you
so very bad
can't shake your
taste
can't stop
tracking
your scent
across the city
you run from me
run from my hunger
hide your liver
and your heart
but i can smell
you
and you set
my teeth on edge
i'm coming
i'm coming
just open
the door
for my big
bad wolf
or i will
never stop
tracking you
from here
until the
stars blow out
and we are nothing
but white bones
who long ago
thought they were
human
and once upon a time
were
hungry

Cellular Memory

our cells
remember
being stardust

and cursed the day
we forced them
to the Earth

we bound ourselves
down to our
own destruction

our cells
remember
the dawn of time

the crawling
ooze
the spark
when life met
life
and exploded
into a thousand little
peering eyes
blinking
at a burning orb
shifting
skyward

the atmosphere
shimmering
to the West
the dark
galloping closer
to the East
and the North Star
still unmoved

tens of thousands
of a hundred thousand
years
and the light will touch us
long after that star is dead
and we pass our cells
down
through time

split
divide
die
reborn

we may have lost
the way upward
but our cells remember
the stars
and stretch across
the expanding universe
like dark planets
looking for
home

Leanan Sidhe

you never saw that Hell coming up behind you
all smiles and pretty eyes
she wiggled right on over to you
black magic kiss
on the side of your cheek

you were waiting for those same red lips
to wrap themselves around your cock
her eyes looking up at you
your hand tangled in her hair

you never saw what she held behind her back
never saw how she looked at you
how she watched you when you slept
never got a fucking clue
too lost in her tongue and those red, red lips

too deep
to get yourself out
you mistook that fire for passion
you couldn't taste the poison
clinging to her words
couldn't fucking take your mind
off of her perfect tits

all you could feel was yourself
sinking into her wet center
her slipping around you
so warm and tight
like some sort of black hole heaven

you never saw the hate in her heart
never saw the gun under the bed
never knew that violence
could come in such as pretty package
"oh, pretty girl,
open your mouth for me again"

you wonder now how the walls go so red
was her lipstick smeared on your eyeballs?
was that the bathroom sink dripping
or your heart?
why is it so sticky in here?
when did her skin get so cold?
when did those horns sprout from her head?

Hell is so very pretty
and has such beautiful green eyes
why are those green eyes taking up the whole world?
Hell has the nicest mouth
the most touchable ass
such delectable hips
and the most perfect tits to slide between

When she came
the Devil stood up and took notice
and when Hell followed with her
you turned to ash and cinders
beneath her perilous hands
and had to bite your tongue
to keep from screaming

Black Dog

you brought in a spark with you
and burnt the fucking room down

you found me
with pieces of meat
hanging from my teeth

you found me
licking away
at old wounds

you found me
all teeth
and yellow eyes

you burnt the fucking room down
to keep me out

you once would have
followed my round ass
all the way to Hell

but look at the trouble
we are in now

I'll bristle when you touch me
I'll howl when hunt me
I'll smile all too much teeth

so much better to eat you with

my eyes may be closed
but I never ever sleep

I licked your hand like an adoring pet
you liked that
and smiled down at me

but I have seen the gates of Hell
where I loved demons
with many heads and grotesque limbs

I have scoured
the earth and the heavens
for tasty morsels of fleshy lovers

I have shoved my head
under the hand of God
and purred dangerously in his lap

Never trust that I am not hungry for you

Do not lay your hand upon my head
with the assumption
that I will not bite you

Do not mistake my growling for affection

Do not turn your back on me

For I never worry
about biting the hand that feeds me
especially when I am oh so hungry

That Dark Planet

your mouth dripped lies
as thick as syrup
your eyes contained
a violent man
with dark convictions
your fingers raked through your hair
and you swore
you'd never see me again

from down in this grave
dug in the clay
of your homeland
I can see stars
ripping the darkness apart
but your heart remains
unchanged
distant as those spinning planets

I kissed your lips
even as they bled
into my mouth
I set your teeth all straight
I held down your eyelids
when you couldn't bare the sight
and met your body
pinned against the mattress

You, raggedy man, had your strings cut
and I held you up
payed for your sins
with mine own sinew and flesh
I made friends with the monsters under your bed
and listened to your clicking tongue
tear me down

yes, from down in this grave
I can see the stars
I can see the black holes
that were your eyes
I can see galaxies collapsing
and novas exploding
your heart is as far
as those distant stars
but back on Earth
I've become the ground
that shifts under your feet
and opens up to swallow you whole

It Could Have Been Me

it could have been me
with lips pressed down on my neck
gasping in the background
hurling through space
like a rocket rabbit
right up the side of the world

it could have been me
but you didn't like how
I tasted and basted
all full of vanilla ice cream
and chocolate covered gummy bears

it could have been me
on the side of the road that
night with headlights
flashing past me
like sharks circling
chunks of bloody chum
in ugly waters

it could have been me
but I hated the feel of timid
admissions of guilt
and beguiling beginnings
all wrapped up in cellophane
looking away

it could have been me
but I was actually
searching for a way out
scratching at the door
prying up the tiles
picking at the edge of the carpet
looking for the escape hatch

it could have been me
but I don't actually
like late shift
coffee shops
or jazz music holes
tapped into false beatnik
skin windows

it could have been you
but I thought too often
about smashing the bridge
of your nose into dust
with my hammer fists
and I never liked
the way you looked at me

so it wasn't me
and we never did
but I do know what
the stars look like
on the otherside of the moon
and what you look like
when you are crying unattractive tears

Down at the Cannibal Cafe

Down at the Cannibal Cafe
they're serving up
racks of Leroy
and eyeball soup

The sauce is as red as congealed blood
and sticks to the roof of your mouth
you can get a tomato and accountant
sandwich for the price
of a cup of coffee from the fancy place
down the street

Down at the Cannibal Cafe
they make sure you never go hungry
they fill your plate with
liver and brain
and something gelatinous
slopping over the edges

 you never go hungry
Down at the Cannibal Cafe

where the musicians
play nightly
on drums made of tattooed skin
and bang on old hollow skulls
with shin bones
they get a little raucous
when the whisky runs out
and have been known to
throw the grill through
the front window
on special occasions

but you never go hungry
down at the Cannibal Cafe
the waitresses with something red
and dead
smeared down the front of
their aprons
always make sure your glass is full
even if you find the occasional finger bone
in your punch

the chef has a whole wall
of the biggest, shiniest meat cleavers
you ever did see
down at the Cannibal Cafe

he likes to finger them
while taking your order
and once threw one
through a uppity yuppie's
brain pan
and the porridge had a lot
of weird clumps in it
the next morning

Down at the Cannibal Cafe
there are chickens running free in the kitchen
and rats paying checkers in the back
the cashier's cigarette dangles
between his greasy lips
with a full inch of ash
perpetually threatening to fall
in your plate of eggs and scrambled kidneys
delivery men tend to disappear
Down at the Cannibal Cafe
and nobody knows why

There's pelvic bones hanging from the ceiling
There's fingernails in the coffee
There's lipstick on the cups
and sometimes you even find the lips
still attached
There's something lumpy
and unidentifiable in the chili
The chef has be adding arsenic
to the ice cream lately
but if you hang around long enough
you get used to it

Down at the Cannibal Cafe
you never go hungry
but you have to be awful careful
you don't end up on the menu
and I suggest staying away
from the tuna surprise