-- mapping the world,
freckle by freckle
with my tongue,
I have found there are four of them
at various points across your belly, and

have I not allowed them entry
into this angry constellation
of teeth, and raw degradation
that has become my mouth

in the absence of you

I have digested them wholly,
never speaking of their beauty, for I
can not possess what I can not crawl into.

-- understanding the stipulation that what is
temporarily borrowed is not freely given,

again, it is you who are
so good at burning for me
what affection can imitate.

They would have given a lot
those paste-skinned kids
with straw for hair
and knobby knees
Not that frail— it seems

Beneath grayish strings
through black rims
one cracked lens screams—
Gets nothing!
Changes nothing!
Ritual words fall—
a rusted refrigerator
shoved over a railing from the second floor

Barking dogs tied to the radiator of misery
fed on rough-house excuses for kindness

Why do people keep children?

Larger than average eyes
huge foreheads of genetic wrong
******* childhood downstairs
while mother is sleeping
I can get used to the smell of cats
Human ***** is not so—
different?
and if I didn’t change my clothes for a week

What do children know?

Jenny cuddles a starving kitten
then releases it to where
they disappear...
one generation after another
Famished eyes
devour anything offered
words...food...***...God

Screams from the mats of string and gray
Scald the frantic instant badly
I watch her bolt beyond explanation
Night gives no reason to let her live....

My faith went the way the kittens go
Hope and a small girl
blend beyond blackness

to sing one love song
before eternal silence.

Mud, whiskey, death
and bad debts, the river's
high water, mysterious birds
flying south disappearing
like a youngest daughter,
no good men, bad intentions,
changing seasons, unexplained
pains, all of these are reasons
I've seen good women weeping
after the hardest rains came.

How I get tangled in myself
Like fear mirroring love
Reaching and making contact
Only to get cut

A disillusioned illusion
What marks two eyes
That are murky sea glass stains
Bags that don't leave with sleep
Kisses from life
Sharp nose
Centered forehead crease
A wariness not one does
Dare to speak

How I get tangled in myself
Like fear mirroring love
Reaching and making contact
Only to get cut

I've got the taste of Black Cat firecrackers in my mouth
Tongue trapped by
Exotic fruit instead of cheese  
Now nothing has a taste

Postmortem, precoitus
Precarious promiscuity
Pantomiming presumptions

Enriched Enouement
Envying earthquakes
Empathetically evolving

Natural naivety
Needing negligence
Nymphomanic nodding

Instrumentally insane
Insinuating innocence
Immobilizing imagery

Sarcastically singular
Sacred succulent
Swallowing Satan