If my war wounds startle you,
it's only God
thinking out loud.
Each blunder tells
a story -
a gash where cannons
met their maker
out on glory road,
or a shattered bone
leaving the witnesses
to breathe
like barren fodder.
There is no joy
in battle,
only a thin bandage
that seals off humanity
and cuts my flesh
to the core.
So make your words
a quick and shallow grave
for my eyes say
do not disturb
and silence
is a deadly animal
I have left broken
in the dark.
I caught you
walking out on wires again,
falling out my window
in a trick so beautiful
that your father wept
and your lover
held his breath.
You called it
an act of defiance
in that voice
that brings me to my knees
and begs me
to argue with you
when you know
that all I really want to do
is strip the pain
from your insides
and bed you
like war.
I do not fly under your flag
or sup from your well of souls.
You will not find my name
written in your lists of legion
or my likeness slipped under your footstool
while your minstrels cower
and beggar men go blind.
I will not sing your praises
or sit at your table
below the salt
waiting like your dogs
for bonescraps to drop
or pray for rings to kiss
in the stark chill of something unborn.
I am no tattered remnant
of your majesty
no soldier of fortune
blinded by your promises
to make me better than I am
or raise my gifts
to unimagined heights.
I am but one man in a scant crowd,
born beneath your horizon
in places you ref
Your slouch says it all
and the way
you wear your hat
in your hands
like something condemned
or a color
you cannot remember.
Words
cannot chase you here
or follow
in the footsteps
of people
whose faces vanish
like purgatory
and pictures
torn from wallets.
Sounds
will not echo
or move
through your sleep
of tears
in blind comfort.
And no song
that bleeds your name
across the pillows
and leaves you falling
like dreams
that slipped through winter...
She imagined the smell of him -
bergamot and lime
and something unfamiliar,
and his slow walk
through her soul
like the end of the world
and how his weight
would be inescapable
and alive with summer.
She imagined his touch,
warm water in the bath
and the rich twist of silk
inside her
and how she knew
he would taste
just like that first time
in Paris
when the streets crawled home
and dawn broke
in slow thunder.
I remember
we sat on the beach at sunset
and counted the kites,
spent sails torn from galleons
breaking clouds into spindrift,
and watched the seagulls
carving August
out of blue and white.
You wore the sky
around your neck,
where the day's warmth
knotted in a chain,
and held shells to my ear
like a mermaid stolen from the sea
breaking the surface of shimmer
and tangled fish
over salty oyster beds.
I remember
the color of your hair
lashing against your shirt
and your pirate smile
like a crooked bird
warming the dusk
and the long cool of your legs
wrapping my nights
and stealing the summer...
Leave him to his solitude
where the light bulb lurches
over the bed
making love to the dark
huddled against the ceiling
and the blankets all are beaten
like wayward apologies.
Let the clock by his pillow
break the sad news
and tally the lies
of her comings
and goings
and their coupling
under the canopy
of weightless flesh
where love once disturbed their sleep
and her arms still ached enough
to break their fall.
For midnight will catch the floor
like it always does
the upwelling of her words
left bristling in the carpet
and send him spilling
in the dark
like blistered silk
setting sadly into the dawn -
just another
She let him get lost
in the soft blue noise
that crowded behind her eyes
and the promises
that bloomed like orange lilies
on a day
gone mad with heat.
She knew the danger
of her skin
where his thumbs
caught under her collar
and she felt the future
swell her ribcage
rustling the calm
and pushing the sky
beyond her limits.
But she didn't care,
she just wanted to taste
what he could offer
in the crush of his arms
where his muscles ran clean
and hard
and snapped her lazy dreams
to attention,
stretching desire out
under the shade
of his lean dark.