Desolation Muses

said you needed help
moving out of this shithole town
I leaned against the wall like your mattress
sagging
from lack of internal support.

*

she drove from Chicago
to squander her weekend with me
watching the open window sill
I bit the fuse of my tongue as we kissed
veins throbbing with my implosion.

*

under your cast shadow
my heart shrinks to some imperceptible thing.
a black spider clenching in on itself
something so small
even the angels can't taste it.

• • •

Air Raid

rain falling into open wounds.
scarred earth.
the rape of a country
concentrated into square miles.

*

jets struggling to be seen behind the cloud fronts,
their engines red-lined against the wind,
green lights blinking
as they fireball upon re-entry.

*

empathy lay dead
with the translation of my sister's words.
my father speaking through her as if some distant warring country
with enough killing, I too can be a man.

she came up knowing i'd unfold her
Paper doll
her eyes were dark in half lit corners
As she told me why she didn't believe in god.
i weighed her blades against my back
Huddled close like lovers
While we both fought for breathing space
Purring in my ear
She reminded me not to fall in love
Because that position had been filled.

• • •

Flowerpots turned over
Their guts and necks transplanted
Spiders sewing the last of their nets
Straggling crows with castanet
Beaks, eyes
Like the mud holding the veins of all those dying things
I was on you
Muddying your boots and hands
Digging in as far as I could reach.

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