We move together like
Pieces on a chess board
Dancing a symphony in black and
White minor

Two legs; lungs breathing
Simultaneously

Filling each other in; waves in
Syncronicity; hanging things
Swinging in
Sympathy

With the ship

Her speech patterns are like coffee.
Black, harsh, and bitter.
Empty of cream or sugar.

Her thoughts are caffeine.
Wired, over loaded, full throttle.
Piercing shards from smashed bottles.

I was 15 years old
when I tried ******
for the first time.

I got it from an older girl
with a mane of obsidian
hair and a porcelain face
shaped like all
her teardrops.

She told me she'd let me
**** her
if I went to prom with her.

I didn't want to **** her;
she smelled like
the Boston Harbor.

I smoked the ******
that first time.

Gray smoke curled thickly
into the damp air of
a basement haunt--
in the Georgian heat
the rain had steamed away.

It tasted like the sands of Persia
or the ambrosia of Mount
Olympus.

It smelled awful;
burnt rubber after a highway
blowout.

I couldn't move;
I sat on my moth-eaten
sofa, dozing in and out
of life in a golden daze.

Everything was golden then
in that instant and I knew
the golden love of a mother's
glowing gaze for the first time.

Then I heaved and my stomach
purged itself.

Then I knew the black hate
of my own vicious glare
for the first time and awoke
an hour later.

Then I threw up my guts
again.

When I woke to the sounds of silence
once more I was confronted
with a golden warmth
and the feeling of the presence
of the Sacred Heart--

and I knew that I loved it.

She’s known as Riotous Rose.
Never has she wanted for company
in the intimate spaces between sheets.
His voice, it calls to her, guides her
down below to rapturous desire.
A carnal growl achingly echoes
inspiring ravenous teeth and hands
that ravage in the gentlest of ways.
****** roses blossom in her cheeks.
With nimble fingers she picks them
before offering them to her lover.

I will not enter the space
between stomach and breastplates
to rest my weary tread.
But rather I sleep
on the surface; never too deep
in your fingernail bed.