he’s larger than life, a caricature of patriotism in a thompson-esque world of mania and devilish charm. one hand on my waist, the other on his new pistol; puts me in a trance watching him smoke cuban missiles. sirens crying out at sea won’t lure him into turquoise waves. swears he’s from the tribe that calls appalachia home, but the mountains vehemently refuse; cherokee roots thatta ways don’t grow. i wished for his violent affection; it felt like heaven’s projection, but when i found a life worth living for freedom he wasn’t willing to award. swore he’d buy me the stars and bestow a nomadic nebula to me, but only if i sold him my soul and gave him my castle’s key. no amount of holy white flames will devour the fingerprints and dirt he coated my exquisite flesh in, but i can paint them to show the horrors from which i’ll grow. strangled up in ivy and a kaleidoscopic spin, breathing my vows while he dips me, achilles, in that vile city river of sin.