My mind is its own body
of water, fluid emotion
at mercy to the moon
Sometimes rapid as
the churning ocean,
unharnessable, dams
each waterwheel I build
as if equilibrium was Hell,
& then
Sometimes vapid as
a stillwater lake, where
peace is dawn's ripple,
days' first surface breach
of a fish upon fly bait.

Hearts of stone melt
At heat tissues burn,
Blood to boil, into ash,
Muscle blown away
strengthless, weak
at Mercury's Ascent,
Wherein this fluid rock,
reveals molten flexibility,
An adept athleticism for
Love's sport alchemy
As  cold marble turns
to gold.

One ruffle divides
once allied kingdoms,
prosperity lost for
propensity's folly --
The stranger gained
is the lover lost,
the rival conceived
between the same satin
that birthed a union of
kings who can't crown
but wear as robes
what rolls off the shoulder
as you turn away (lying)
like a wave of intent
that shifts the tides to
flood empty channels,
a moat to surround these
castle walls constructed
in stone defense, having
forfeited our palace
to break this treaty.

The night beasts assault
My mind, digging out
Of my brain, rampaging
Down my spine in fury
To commandeer my hand
And spill on to the page,
Released to the world as
My open-heart bridges,
Beckons them outward,
Afraid to close the gate
And lock them inside.

My body is a temple and
on holidays, they prey.
"Come to the feast,"
An invitation to
forgive and forget
the sins and trespassings
of crucifixation.

The body and blood of
--oh Christ--
Taken by you, shed by me,
as this Holy wine saves us
from a judgment
between comforting beliefs
and cold, hard facts.

Love, Loss, Lust,
The divine Trinity that
brings us to our knees
in front of the altered;
Bliss-ed is he who comes
in the place of the Lord.

Partners in crimes
of war
on the battlefield
of love,
Like refugees
of war
Seek the solace
of love.

Art heals the creator
like scar tissue, sealing
cracks of a broken past,
Red-raw against pale skin
For the world to see that
You're recovering whatnot,
Till time fades these wounds
To nothing
a little makeup can't hide,
So we blend back in, to
Where we never belonged,
An find our identity within
Public display of deformation,
Striped naked, to express self
awareness, no more gruesome
enough to repulse, nor normal
enough to ignore the silver line
Between trauma and wrinkle;
scars fade, not vanish, but
keep us together regardless.