Thorns tickle my throat
Come
The cranes that feed their
Children;
          My son’s already inventing.

The night’s my only staple
Come
The stars that sing for
Others;
          I list in endless insomnia.

Slowly glowed the river
Come
The golden sorts of
Dreams;
          I leave them for my progeny

          And surrender to what I’d sworn.

She sold flowers atop my cigarette’s sting,
And soiled steppe -
A path splattered someone,
Clocks kept prior and piano strings.

She’d be my last resort,
Parallels bottled – Two-tight braids,
Scarred upper lip and eyes deep,
Diggin’, diggin’ deep into me.

She’d **** if she could,
But money met is money spent,
And knifes in backs are bad for business,
So she’d always be mine.

That said, I’d always be hers,
Scampered, sleepy, and with one drunken
Right eye to wander east come
Sin under satin.

But the hour’d arrive, “One” becomes,
And the breeze would do what it does –
I’d see the sea, the sky, and lastly to hear,
She’d set up shop elsewhere;

She’d be happy, he’d be happy,
And I’d be somewhere sullen,
Somewhere awful, somewhere scribbled,
An echo and if only, a stain upon her altar.

I don’t know what hurt worse,
The tick-tock
And clock in all –

Or the waiting,
Just one more second,
The wanting,
One last second
And be ******
The wine stained sand
And buzzards atop ear;

Always to remind of how I’d
Loved and ultimately
Failed.

She dreams,
I demise,

She spies,
I fly.

I fall,
She laughs,

I scowl,
She gaffs.

We’d thorn,
We’d born,

We’d bend,
We’d mend,

And the grass would grow,
And the moon would throw;

When she dreams,
When I dream,

We dream,
We dream,

And dream once more.

The smoke circled halo,
Bent smiles and summoned demons,
Brimstone come a reverent silent
And obeyed sort of way.

I let my left eye avoid.

I’d let my right dream,
As I munched skewered calf,
Innocent, slaughtered, salivated
And my only excuse – Survival.

Toe-to-toe with
Home-field advantage
I nodded from shadows
To the one who scented venom;

Lace tucked slightly thigh,
She’d wink and hours later,
The demon would meet the Devil
And she’d devour –

All I’d known,
All I’d ever know
And all we’d ever be.

She tapped my
Shoulder,
I caught carpels.

The “heavy” caught
My breath,
I feared death.

But I’d sip like the
Wind,
I’d open my sails.

And She’d later smile,
A daughter,
And I’d live;

Eternal.

I watch the moths bounce off,
And imagine every attempt
I’ve ever made to love.
I feel the night like they do,

I feel the flight like they do, futile,
And remaining drawn to the flames;
If only to pray upon altars ash.
And when the goddess leans

To burn once more,
When the mosquito licks my arm;
I scratch and scratch and scratch
To bleed;

I hope the one next to me,
I hope she slices when I sleep,
I hope she plants flowers,
I hope she was jubilant,

And if only for those few hours.