Amongst canyons I want to throw my body to,
Red river hunkers its belly to the ground.
I count roadkill and think
I am *****.
I am wrapped in the Beast and beginning
To understand.
So I save my soil and think only of
The hills.
They open their palms and give me
Graveyards and I kiss the dust from
Their fingers.

New Mexico stretches her calves against too much sky.
Her mesas are polka dotted and she’s only wearing
Red and green in her hair.
She opens her palms,
Gives us graveyards
And we kiss the dust from her palms.

Chew me fifty times, and I will go down easier.
Chew me one hundred times and your mouth
Will not remember me.
Show me your teeth, and I will not choke on my ‘bye.

I’m gonna make me a woman from your garden flesh.
I’m gonna sprout from your ribs.
I’m gonna **** your marrow dry and grow
And I hope that my bones will know your mouth too.
I hope that you taste the fertile dirt on my tongue;
It is silent, soil, and better
Than the words we do not say, but not better
Than your ribs under my flesh in Eden.

How can I wrap my weak bones around strong bodies
Forming rivulets of salt across my sheets
And down steps that will dry as soon as we stand
And leave this Indian summer air?
I am womb-fresh and shaking.

How can I tame lions when my own finger-claws
Hold the whip that flays my belly from inside out.
The back of my throat has nail marks
From all three of us.

I am a beast too, when I dare to stroke comfort
Into your hair with palms that smell like victory;
My dry cheeks are red with the upper hand.

Has my **** swallowed both your prides
With your fingers?
One month ago, beautiful,
You were spitting fire that sounded like:
“I don’t like anyone.”
Now you have laid on my floor.
You have counted three words off my claws.

And you, beautiful alchemist,
Do you know that the death under your skin
Has dripped onto mine and turned it to gold?
Please
Search the truth you crave in this flayed belly,
In this marked throat.
Dig my veins from the ground.
My gold is spent; it does not cry.
But it is so nice to be needed.

night blind but mouths
can see
i will swallow
you whole and burn your body
into my mind's eye

To be his slow-kissed painted Jesus;
To breathe only frankincense and
To **** the cross from his fingers;
To drink his Amen and answer Hallelujah;
To hang my head towards high ceilings and
Sin.