Sunday Confessional, as I sit in front of 'Earthly Paradise' at the Art Institute*

The people in the painting must be hot.
It's 70 degrees in December
and I wore a coat to a museum
and I can still feel the coke in my nose from last night.
I love this painting because it suffocates me.
And maybe these characters suffocate themselves,
naked,
under thick purple trees and overripe skies.
Last night
we wanted to destroy each other.
Called it Paradise
or Garden of Eden.
Peeled back our flesh
to see our insides.
The warm air was thick
as I walked her to her door,
sticking to us like an extra skin.
Asking to be shed,
snake-like.
I need to take off this coat.
It's too warm for December.