chasing tails

blow the dust into
my eyes, off
your aging words,
liver spots and wrinkles
on thank you
and be mine sugar
heart pellets.

take shallow breaths in
your apologies,
too much blinking here, dust
in the outlines of eyes

the hobbling now
lifting your cane, pointing
here. at what should
have been a period at the
end of this sentence

but you were distracted
for a second of brilliant whimsy
for a moment of deceitful bliss

and left me dangling.

growing

I strain towards the earth
ear to the floor,
hoping to catch unwitting words,
begging it to blurt out secrets of
growth. But no,
the earth is not chatty today,
not teenaged, not a woman.

I face silence.
my forehead to the ground telling more,
telling of my readings today,
the articles (of faith) lining
ulterior motives,
novel ideas lay stretched on their backs
offering to reverse stunted growth,
but I know, oh yes I can tell
the advertising of a sham.

My knees are to the floor,
and I am bruised
sitting like this for so long.

only so much

there is only so far
I can bend in your direction,
only so many smiles I
can forfeit
to your greedy heart,
and only so many flowers
I can be given before I learn
the overpowering stench
of sweet.

Wedding Gift

there is little
left to see here
as I gather handfuls
of frittered lace
around the remains of Heart.

There were no alarms
or fire brigades
to douse this misshapen section of flesh.
No, but there was
veiled surrender
to a sea of lapping flames,
angered at every attempt of
touch.

after the fire
I moved away,
back to the places in mind
I grew up:
arguments with Soul,
disbelief in good things,
and self-written endings to
stories of me
dressed in white lilies

I make this my new home
my body is humbled,
but she is burned and agrees

–––

a few months later
I have at last decided what to give,
here is my happiness
in a wedding favour.

I’ve wrapped it up
shiny for you,
my gift.