Villanelle

She spoke of ghosts when I was young
Of heartbeats swallowed by the walls
Yet I could smell the devil’s tongue

My eyelids fluttered as she sung
My Playboy mommy, us her dolls
Songs of ghosts when I was young
 

Us little girls once prayed, once clung
To her long legs to break our falls
Yet I could smell the devil’s tongue
 

One breath of her collapsed my lungs
Nightmares born from her shrill calls
One ghost alive when I was young
 

From my dear mother’s mouth, she hung
Those pretty dripping words for brawls
The sting, the smell of devil’s tongue
 

With steadied vengeance I once flung
blood from my lips to make her small
I learned of ghosts when I was young
I learned to steal the devil’s tongue

Cadavers for God

The dawn cracked upon my eyes

but had no yolk, so I blinked through
the bland fogginess with no real hope
of redemption. I no longer feel the pull
of direction as I navigate my way
to the culprit. Demagnetized
with heavy crosses to bear

guess I’ll file for unemployment.

The North drove me insane for years
upon years – wrapping myself in bearskin
I felt the arms she chose to never wrap
around me. So I’d flee to
the East for my reincarnation
but they said I’d need the exorcist first.

I’ve lost my divisibility, I think,
but leaded hands don’t know much
about nothing. Us wanderers steal
precious space from the rest

But we’re great cadavers for God.

Phoenix, Arizona

the desert brought

my greatest harvest –
__________

the other man’s dust
rose swiftly
from the dunes

all the grainy details
blinding me
as one

the calm post-storm
under-
whelming.

__________

at first, I could’ve sworn
you were a mirage
out there –

the seeds you carried
birth barren plains
from rough hands

the peace on your face once dishevelling.
__________

the longer I’ve
lived here, the more
primal I feel. The more

at peace with the
pieces I could never
really settle

Even indigenous
to the art
of becoming.

Midnight’s Cartographer

pale earth, dark sky
reversed – these fingertips know
these hills pressed close above me,
the ivory spanned
in plains across my chest

you often leave this night
brighter
in your half shadow.

I shake
as your lungs pound against
these ridges, these ribs
I once drew, plunge
into the hollowness
of each collarbone
waiting to be filled
with my breath

when this land grumbles
in hunger, I know just
when to brace
for the shake.

you are an endless map
to be filled, my love
an earth unalike
to discover

and I: an unmarked night
a sky with mismatched stars

with constellations to give you
moons I wish you’d name

Adam

I saw you in
our poison apple, in love
with a different kind
of dream. Our skins – bereft
of life – slithered ‘round
our thinning ankles in a
single, tender coil,
abiding.

You never feared it –
I know that now. How I loved
your kaleidoscope eyes as they
danced in this small room and yet
somehow always found me. How

I loved the way
we merged, our braided limbs and
molten eyes, yours ever searching
for that sanctuary awaiting –
spiraled patiently, reluctantly
on a small patch of carpet.

Oh, how I loved you,
how I loved you raw.

Crawl back in that decrepit skin
as if it cradles you
to sleep. I saw past
your stale horizon, to a pulse
and flame, carved gold; to a
labyrinth of beauties and fears
that bring a man like you
to tears. But crawl back

into your sinner’s cage
if it holds you tighter than
anyone could. I’ll set this bed
alight, I’ll watch you slink away – I’ll
lie down in our dear relic,
an ever-burning rib.

Disembark

She left me silently in the morning
and only once she was really gone
did I wake up. Maybe I knew she was
there all along, hiding for her grand reveal,
hoping to make the two of us
swell with our pride as we stood
patiently by the gate.

But she could hear what you
were thinking, my lover, so she
waded away from me unwillingly
with hopes we would find her again.
I hope I find her, too – that I will
one day take her into my arms
and thank her for leaving me so that
I never had to choose to say goodbye.

She could hear
what you were thinking, my lover,
but as she slipped away, I lost
the part of you within me, I lost
the sense of completion behind
your stone cold eyes, I lost
the beautiful feeling that you could
one day love me, I lost
that gold horizon, the chance
I’d ever love myself.