I'm going home,
leaving the pack unknown and unsafe
and my eyes strafe, swoon and sigh at the holy display
of the pure 9-to-5,
walking away from her place of pay,  
to go home like me tonight.

A swift above carries on home,
food for its young carried between teeth and tongue.
A family walk from the local school,
with song being sung from the cooler two of the sons.
A car reverses nearly knocking and smudging the woman in blue;
a jacket atop a blouse, pristine shop-bought-new.

I remember her sunglasses.
I remember her eyes from behind her sunglasses.
I remember her staring me down through the lenses
melancholy and blue,
knowing that this was a passing
break-through affair.

Her head was covered in stubble
That's where her hair used to be
She touched me with cold fingers
And black serpents writhed in my chest

I could bite my bottom lip off
And gag on my own blood
I come around head swimming
Her fingers in my chest hair
Had me running for the matchbox

She kept the lighter lit a while
And I watched it dance on the end of a safety pin
White hot
We locked eyes
She had me
Third degree
Beneath her thumb

In between the black charred lines of skin
Her tongue would run
Nostrils filled with that smell of cooked flesh
If this is love
I understand

All night long we kept the fire going
Burning old photographs and books for tinder
Not hot enough
Not bright enough

So we lit our little house on fire
Nowhere left to fight-scream-throw things
Not hot enough
Not bright enough

A spark hop
The neighbors house
Smoke alarms screaming like a newborn baby
Spreading so fast
God couldn't stop it
The whole city burned like a cherry
Sirens screech

If this is love
*******

Stone and stone
and black street
of these concrete
paths.
a laugh
from burning man,
the bloated veined man,
that stands on his kingdom,
that stands on stone and stone.
the yellow teeth,
gold like his withered kingdom,
that both host refusal,
refusal
to shine under
sun or thunder's
roar,
for
he's a king,
the king
of stone and stone
and the needle his queen.
oh gentle queen!
caress him with a kiss,
a last cold kiss,
"goodnight
goodnight".

Alt-Title:Prince of  the Street/ Filth and his Highness