Cactus spines
Prickly gold cover
don't touch me, lover.

Nauseated by this life
All the anger and strife
Circles on circles
End up where you began
A ship on sand
Nature, with its blood
Death and mud
cactus stingers and moon
Nothing that lasts
Except the past

I fell in love with the colors first
A contrast green, gold
Blue
Underneath.
Then the words
So many and so few
Sighs and currents
Cold shivering view
Distance and near
Not having enough eye
To see all
That once was here.

There are rocks
With your finger prints on them

There are places
With the color of your eyes
Burning them down

There are memories
I wanted to last forever

There is pain
In the end of a needle
Just as there is love
In all people

There is a body
With your name
Your finger prints
Your colors
But no you.

I dip myself in gold
A hot sizzle
Does it catch
your eye
your fancy
The edge of your shirt
Beckoning you back

Do I call to you
As you call to me?
My hair will grow in either case
The geese will fly
The world will turn
And whisper it's infinite terror
It's infinite beauty

But now
it's done whispering

Etched into life
Patterns of chicken scratch
Looking for crumbs in the dust
You only have to trust
Put them in spaces
Old with rust
Can you see through my faces
Enough.

I vaporize and materialize
On some occasion
Put myself back together
In time for the explosion
Repeat
Repeat patterns
Repeat you
Repeat me

Bite my nails
Just in case.
I carve out this space
Where they cannot hurt me

Now I see
That you belonged
Crammed and curled and far away
Bone to breast
With all the rest
Where you couldn't hurt me.

Pull up all my silk,
All my buckets , and lies.
Retreat. Retract into a cave.
Wait for the moon to rise.