Morning Song

There is a rose on the table

The bedsheets warmed from a sunny window

I lay with one knee raised

My skin is lonely

That golden-handled door we taught to open

(while we were kissing, Love,

while your thigh won the wet from me)

Has taught itself to close.

A bird sings in the garden

He knows nothing

Or everything

He sings like a perfect fool

For me.

There is a rose on the table

The bedsheets warmed from a sunny window

My breasts are lonely

My hands are lost children

Far from home

I lay on my back, as if you might rejoin me;

I study the stucco walls and the ceiling,

Here in this lonely warm bed

Near my lovely rose,

That traitor door,

And the singing of that lonesome

Idiot

Bird.

__________________________________

Chimera

if the Clever Gypsy had a little sister, she might be....

CHIMERA

Chimera, charming gypsy witch,

Soft-cheeked goddess or heartless bitch,

When I reach for the apple

in your perfect grip,

When I reach for the apple

at the curve of your hip,

My hand finds the thorn bush,

My blood red and bright

Like an Ace of Hearts

On the ground in the night.

Robot In Love

A robot falls in love.

A robot falls in love with a curling iron.

The robot takes to watching romantic comedies

And leaking visual lubricant upon hearing certain sappy love songs;

All the while

Caught up in daydreams of how,

Where there is beauty,

She enhances it--

And to the straight and dull,

She brings panache and style.

And besides!

She's hot!

But could she love a robot?

Could she love someone genderless?

Could she love

Someone not covered under warranty?

If the robot could shrink,

And hide among the cotton balls and band aids at night,

Then the robot might hear her sighing in her sleep,

Saying, "Dreamy robot!

Come and get me!"

But unfortunately,

The robot spends its nights folded for easy storage

Among the coats and boots

In the front closet

Where,

Set to standby mode,

The robot dreams Rapunzelian dreams

In which the beloved little curling iron

Is always warm

And close at hand.

_____________________________

Kill Desire

Kill desire--

That bloody heartless tease;

That empty promiser,

That sweet and damned disease.

I want a body of rags,

Numb sticks and blowing ash;

I want the wind to howl,

And I will howl back.

Kill desire--

Kill mind and flesh and heart;

Lay down again in mother earth,

Where rot and roses start.

___________________________

The Moon

The moon--

The sky's

Lunatic

Eye;

Lid cocked at a slightly

Different angle

Nightly.

Feral Girl

In some off brand
Coalyard
Eastern shithole,
A woman left her child and went off to raise a bottle,
And so a child was left to the mercy of wolves.

Her years in the pack
Taught her to
Scavenge
Snarl,
And fight.

Upon discovery,
She was clearly seen to be a girl
Despite the lunging
Despite the snapping.

Over time, she was taught to use a tea cup,
Eat off a plate
Sleep in a bed
And stop fighting;

And yet,
Though she is clearly a girl,
Wolfness is deep in her bones;
And in the middle of lunch,
If she feels tired
Or stressed
She may start to growl low
Ears back, teeth bared,
Stopping the conversation
Cold.

I love this girl
And take her parking when the moon is full
Just to provoke her into howling.

I love this almost-blended wild spirit
Who, though she is clearly a girl,
Is a wild girl

Feral girl.

Wolf.

Girl.
_____________________

Girl Scouts On Acid

She's like girl scouts on acid

With that

Sweet face

Innocent face

She's like love in the House of Mirrors

If she's bent, fool,

You'll bend, too.

Oh, and you want to climb her like a vine

Don't you?

You want to kiss her and fall down the elevator shaft--

Fall down

Fast.

She's like girl scouts on acid

With that sweet face

Innocent face

She's like love in the House of Mirrors

Gone

Without

A trace.

Canto For A Cuckoo

Once upon a springtime came

A pretty bird made of flame

I opened both my heart and nest

I loved its song, I loved its breast

It stayed a while and lit up May

It warmed my heart, I bade it stay

I loved it well, I loved it best

But when the flame bird goes

The ashes blow

From east to west

That's the rest.

The Marlboro Man

The Marlboro Man, addled with love poems,

Begins to act strangely...

He treats his horse like a house pet

And sits at home in the afternoons,

Watching Oprah and Rachael Ray.

Sick of sagebrush,

He trades in his old black skillet

For a dream kitchen.

"For god's sake pull yourself together" nags his cigarette-steeped sister

As her kids finger his figurines.

He quits smoking,

Gives up huckstering.

The Lesbians next door buy him a rainbow

--a real one!--

Which he places in the yard between the trellis

And the barbecue.

In the evenings,

There is the sound of Gato Barbieri drifting from his windows;

No buttes

No diamondback rattlers.

Just

The Marlboro Man

Reading the Advocate

In the peace of the almost midnight.

_________________

Peace

If I should die,

If the little rivers within my flesh should go still,

It's all right, My Love.

Because every place on my skin that you have ever touched,

Will bloom all over again within my mind;

That will be the light I go to,

No different than

The many times you've left me breathless and insensible,

Transported,

Whispering your name in each little death like a prayer.

Plum

Take this silver blade--

Slide it under my skin, let yourself in

My flesh belongs to you;

Red will rise behind closed eyes--

And my heart? Ah well, my heart...

It always belonged to you.

Clever Gypsy

Clever gypsy.

Slender fingers plucked a shiny silver coin from behind my ear

And while I was distracted, grinning,

She stole my heart.

Clever gypsy.

Under waving green maples

She set up her table, and from an old top hat

Her slender fingers coaxed a cloud of gypsy moths

And when the cloud rose,

The leaves fell.

Clever Gypsy.

Now I am buried in the barrens

Covered at a crossroads;

She spent my coin on a biscuit

And my heart on a whore

Leaving only my stupid dazzled desire,

Too dim to even know it should die.

Clever Gypsy.

_________________

Thaw

Icicle, child of warmth and chill,

Your body hard and sharp--

Though Mama warned you to stay cold,

It's Daddy's girl you are.

Thursday Afternoon

Thursday Afternoon

We wander behind the basket, you and I
Special on spaghetti noodles
Pepsi products priced as marked
Doris to register nine

I am the too-tall woman with the wild black mane
You, the married mom with a secret flame
A rainbow in a loaf of Wonder Bread
I am thinking of the night you said,
"I want interlocking female symbols tatooed on my hip"
As you kissed my ear
Sucked my lip

Emily chatters about the things she sees
I make a face at James and he laughs for me
And there among the potatoes and the pears,
You squeeze my fingers
Stroke my hair
And in that moment, my world is perfect
I am your "gem", your baby, your eager bride

And then it's back to
Special on spaghetti noodles
Pepsi products priced as marked
Doris to register nine.
_________________

Maricela Mexicana

Maricela Mexicana

The drops fall from the roof...
They fall like I fell for your heart-shaped face.

The porch light is like some melancholy moon...
Maricela Mexicana,
I listen to the breeze in the night.

As the stars disappear behind moody clouds,
The moon disappears as you disappeared...

Maricela Mexicana
The drops fall as I remember your kiss...
And I listen
To the breeze
In the night.
_______________