Lovely mute loose from her bruiser brute
Like a young child who cannot recite her address,
I sip slow poison
Across the rathskeller,
Incorporeal paws claw at the bodice of my dress,
The charnel house of our cherished hours
The band’s subway train has been delayed;
(A man left an empty water bottle on the seat before dragging his feet home.
We hope it’s not a bomb) silence waltzes through the room
In a banquette, I see the bend in your knee and in your nose
A gargoyle waiting for the right time of night to strike
When other swing-dancing couples have festooned themselves half-drunken and merry
across city streets
Then we are like two stray animals in a cardboard box
The last drops of painted pill alcohol stretch themselves down my throat, accomplices of your
ploy
Upon their breach of my brain, you reach for my wrist
We depart, myself on tottering tiptoe, you- identifiable thief of carnelian in the white night
Reluctant palms pushed up against the apartment’s peeling paint
Carnivorous breaths howling down my neck
And afterwards, always the same silicone apology
If only I hadn’t lost God between cracks of a wall
(A snake slipping- slithering through my fingers)
I would wash away pieces of you from my sheets
Whenever I put them through the laundry
I would-
Jamthewordsbackintoyourcoinslotmouthlikeoldbrokengamesatthearcade
Or make you drive for hours to reclaim your sentences!
but instead I find myself, the romantic amnesiac
climbing out of the silent rainforest.
coming home to the soft moss of your skin.
to breathe crisp morning back into your lungs.
