kiss the angry rash at my throat
where the fires of melancholy
that burn inside me
have licked upward
like a witch burning
a witch
who burns herself
from the inside out

I am Eve
and I will always eat the fruit.
You can tell me I can go back,
you can tell me I can forget my nakedness,
forget the cold,
and still,
I will eat the fruit,
I will have the knowledge.

Elegant teeth
of the wolf
caressing
flesh as pale
as teeth

they've been eating cake
take their cake away
let them eat hunger
the upper classes
crave apocalypse
and speak of revolution
as a desirable inevitability
but lay the burden
of building the guillotine
upon the poor
while denying them access
to the forest
and the wood that grows there
the mythic poor
are urged to eat the rich
the mythic rich
the rich that are richer
than the rich who dream
these dreams
if you want us
to eat the rich
invite us into the homes
of your parents
and let us sit at your
christmas dinner
and eat your food
and serve up the horror
of our presence
the good book says
charity begins at home
let us eat you

I am taking off my hand
like a glove
and leaving it
on your little table in the hall
for you to find
as though I forgot it
in my breezy exit
I won't be able to
touch anything
until you return my hand
I never leave anything behind
I never make mistakes
without complete intent
without a significant charade
Think to yourself,
what a silly thing,
she's left her hand behind,
I must get it back to her

I don't recall the names of trees and flowers.
I recall their beauty.
Perhaps if they don't need a name to be what they are,
I don't either.

I'm the reason
your son is getting fat
I am everything
you wouldn't want for him
Older, poor, uneducated
white, American
What kind of future
can there be between us?
Every meal I cook for him
and we eat together
has the deep down secret
that you do not know about me
I cannot speak your language
Would you like me better
if I could?
He's far across the sea
letting a foreign woman
fatten him up
and love him
He told me once
that before he left home
you told him to be a good boy
You don't know
that he has been kinder to me
than anyone in my life
How can I thank you
for making him who he is?

I am enthroned any place that I sit
Hedgewitch queen
Anointed by the dirt on the soles of my feet
Briars scratch my arms and cheeks,
Lovelier than silver chains
Wandering queen
I claim every place I step for my kingdom

I am four queens,
I am shuffled through the deck.
I fear drawing another card,
There are so many cards between myself,
And so many futures I am unsure of.

I love you, John the Baptist
I love you, Saint Sebastian
I want to be the blades
that slice and pierce you
and martyr you
lovingly
Securing the fame
of your spirit
with the sweet and holy
suffering
of my touch

Metal wrought of man
I am a woman
in the shaft of an arrow
my heart in the sharpened head
glinting
entering your skin
Sweet Sebastian
exposed to me
I am inside you

The axe and the axeman
obeying the command
to end your life
John the Baptist
A girl wants your head
but I'll have it first
I'll kiss the nape
of your neck
forever

I dreamt I lured a man to the countryside
to betray him
I dreamt I got a call from my mother
telling me my father was dead
He'd been caught
sleeping with the wives
of other men
His throat was cut
I had a hard time hearing her
over the line
I've never met my father
She hung up
without saying goodbye
I looked out
over the rolling green hills
the sunset
and sheep
I think I was a spy
and maybe I was going
  to ****** that man
I took him to this farm
and told him this was the place
of my youth
and then my mother called
interrupting my mission
to say my father was dead
He was getting out of bed
and his throat was slit
I didn't grow up in this place
and I can't remember
why I needed to betray
this man

How we love to dream of plagues.
Revulsion is a god whose altar is looked upon
through the fingers of our covered faces.
Our demise is a guilty pleasure.

tonight i'm a seahorse
i am curled in an egg with a jaguar
i'm snow that doesn't fall
i am an insect swallowed by a frog
i'm in my own spine
i am an apple ripening
i dream like a tumor in my breast
i dream what light dreams
i dream i'm all the teeth in the world
tonight i am one grain of sand
i'm a pearl dissolved in the emperor's wine
i am a silkworm
i'm a hyena mating with a lioness
i am water poisoned by corpses
my dreams are crystal, quartz, a dagger
my dreams are shark's teeth, lost in silt
my dreams are hope, despair, distraction
my dreams are sisters
my dreams are blood
my dreams are vinegar
i am the poison hidden in the queen's ring
i'm a landmine sleeping on the beach
i am the lamb without knowledge of sacrifice
i'm the first taste of a spice
tonight i am venus singing through the dark
tonight i am the sea kissing myself
tonight i am the beginning of a dream that is forgotten
tonight i am the night and its fear
tonight i am every shard of glass
tonight i am wisdom dying before love
tonight i'm someone you remember
tonight i'm a nautilus
tonight i'm dreaming in my lungs

they are eating the flesh of sirens

in this world, all ghosts are women

i give birth to a caveful of bats

i can see the planet neptune clearly with my own two eyes

this is the language written in wisps of smoke

the sky is filled entirely with ghosts

i cannot burn this city without you

the blood is too pale for my body

i’ve forgotten what hunger feels like

what was the first name for this plague?

the terrible world where there is no madness

the unicorn has been pierced with these arrows and must carry them forever

venus replaces the sun

we anoint a dozen queens to reign over the moon and war with one another through the night

the jackals gnaw the rib bones of isis all through the night

we’re making it, we’re making it through the night again through the night

i guess we're both failing
a lot of each other's tests
but we keep swinging back
all the same
to wanting

i told you i was shy
about saying your name
shy about hearing
my name from your mouth
told you i missed it
all the same

how much of me is a thing
bumping against your silence
like a bird trying the same window
as though it might become air

now the chimes are out
for spring
and i can't hear chimes
without thinking of you
because i said your eyes
made me think of chimes

every love song is about
something you're not
soon after we met you said
you hoped we'd make music together
i said i was too scared
now i'm scared
you'll never want that again

the blood on the door
is it mine
or yours