i brush the popcorn off my jacket.
outside the theater where they show
fassbinder films
i dig for spare change in my pocket
for the homeless man on the corner of
seventeenth and arbor.

heard through the psychobabble
as he extends his hand:
“get a girlfriend
get a job
stay warm”

the things we do to be human.

The aroma of coconut milk
permeating the frost
of the windshield.

Vague scent of cigarettes and Febreze
in your hair.
Your teeth between my thighs.

Your tongue
circling mine
like two hyenas
scavenging .

You taste like
the tea you drank
half an hour ago.

Neutral
This car has been hit before.

I am frightened by your
automatic seatbelts.

The rusty
red earth
created
beneath your feet
is all you have to your name.

Angel laugh
(bells)
Broken lyre strings lining the floor like
carpet

Never look
down.

Don't hide
your scarred knees
from the world
don't cage your beating heart
with your ivory ribs

But rather
bare yourself
to the unforgiving universe

Try until your fingers bleed
and your hair grows silver with the wind
be thankful for every breath that fills your gasping lungs
and sing to the wind that you are alive
with the song still in you.
The ridges of your lips
tell stories of women
gained and lost
like pounds
or wooden pencils
from grade school

Behind a thicket of eyelashes
(downcast)
you weep
and laugh
with the same pair of bright eyes.

Pearl smile
(glint in the sunlight)
safe in the lines of your eyes.

Crane your pale neck
like a swan;
watch the cliff
burst open with sparrows and
rock doves.

Hands.
(tactile)
In your mind the song of color
shower water and
a tri-tone
thick as the sound of thighs upon thighs
helium-light
sorrow-heavy

Words.
The way you say anything
and nothing
clean-cut by the shears of your tongue
at the end of the rope.

Song.
Polyphony of your voice
and the sound of the storm
as you stand
arms outstretched
rain-soaked and cold
with bright glass eyes
and a warm heart
the storm crescendos
with the rise and fall of your hands
rain falling like cigarette smoke
on your upturned face
You taste on your tongue
yourself
passion and salt
slightly sweetened
by cologne
and the grainy bitterness
of skin

Soul.
This vase full of tears
like your breakable soul
(tastes like wildflowers and rain)
this lace-feathered honey hair
perfection contained in one white body
in one frosted-glass soul.

Hellenic
Flesh and marrow
Raphaelite form
painted into life.

Honey hair
slipping through the vees between my fingers like
sand
conch-white skin
You blind me
like the noonday sun.
Enveloping—
body wrapped in body—
ocean and sky
meet
at the horizon.

Peel my skin from me
like an orange.
Apple.

Heal me
with hands upon thighs
Stitch my ragdoll body together with the sutures of your kisses
Stuck
by the glue of lips

Raise me like Lazarus
from the valley of death
from the orchard in Eden and the shame of skin

Reupholster me
like a dinette chair.

Vivid as the Sistine Chapel
your hand
outs t r e t c h e d
toward God

I find you in
pumpkin seeds
scattered
like tears
on the floor of my car.
They were yours.

You weigh
three hundred and twenty-six pounds
two hundred and twenty of them
from the used-up
hot air
of other people’s mouths.

These hands
give voices to the voiceless
the murmurs of old ghosts in
mahogany mansions

These hands
slide up the thighs of olive-skinned women

From their hanging place above your
upturned face
the stars whisper their blessings
into the ebony
velvet night.

Find meaning
bleeding from
your smoker’s cough
ripping through your throat like
honey and citrus
and
my tongue in the winter.

Feathered hair falling
Across downcast eyes; take in
forms of pear-shaped girls.

Stretch this pale body
Like a cat. On the stage (yours)
Girls hover like birds.

Do you belong here?
Back behind the black curtains
Closed doors and thick ropes?

**** as a newborn
Flat, inside-out and exposed
Beige hair made of sand

Close-holding muscled
Arms—hold this hourglass waist
To legs arms body—

Lips of dark coral
Flush from the snow (white) outside
Taste it on your tongue

Start with a picture.
Any one will do.
Names rattled off, like
Stars, constellations—
Screamed into silence.

Blink. Close your eyes; imagine
Red ribbons and blood floating
Through frigid air, in the snow.
See this tall, dark, frail body
Consumed by snowflakes and cold
Laugh like a choir in the
Middle of the stage (bright light)

Start with lips. Eyes, nose.
Start with clavicle
Breastbone and a thigh.
Start with oxygen
End with a human.