Monday, April 28, 2014

amuse bouche

Fall asleep mulling 
mussels on ivory plates--
Finger fucking on 
thanksgiving
palms full of 
hunger to tide 
the ride home. 

Do you take your gravy on the side? 
grandfather passing
cranberry sauce to the 
pretty one 
quiet with 
/her very good friend's/
fingers pressed 
up her skirt.
 
When she came during 
grace, they all said amen. 

That night, when I was 
giving thanks, 
she spread pie on my thighs 
and called me her 
dessert. 

Sunday, April 27, 2014

breaking point

you can destroy someone and still get a 4.0 because you're fuckingsuper woman
nearly there
nearly everywhere —
you're calling action
on the shots of your past.

three point turning down the
highway and you're
flying like seven, seven, seven,
just a block from your heaven.

baking all your peach pies —
much sweeter than the girl who
doesn't know what questions to ask
contact here for the job next year.
you picked you over me
so i'm going to go pick me
over me
because nobody else did.
now. huh. 
knocking down your years;
four, three, two, here
turning cogs on your turnstile,
trying to see how life works out.
good luck with all your future
actions too. you really fucked up
and i don't know how to forgive
you because it doesn't go
away.  

Saturday, April 26, 2014

lessons learned in a beer garden

she told me about the kind of love to make your head spin;
the kind that wraps itself around every one of your fingers
like the hug from a child's tiny hands;
the kind that pushes itself into your cornea and swells
your pupils so that it's always too bright outside;
the kind that hits you like a shot--straight to the blood--straight
to your thoughts--making the balcony seem like an easy jump.

she told me about the kind of sex to make your head spin;
the kind that pushes your teeth back and stifles your screams
with the knowledge that mom is right outside;
the kind that markets itself as a night-long fuck with a fuck-star
when you end up making love like you are;
the kind that makes your lips bleed the next morning and tastes
like you've spent your adolescence kissing in cop-cars lying about lying at all.

she told me about the kind of death to make your head spin;
the kind that gives you one more second of realizing you can't
pull back your finish line any longer;
the kind which pushes your eyes closed with it's cool tongue and
forges a riot through the breaks in your lungs;
the kind which leaves a note on your bedside table, in the shower, written
about an hour before you decided to do it at all, so you're toted off
with your bottle in your pocket, with your noose/knife/gun to take the
life off your hands, which had gotten so heavy, which had run by
so heavy, so fast, and linked itself with your name so that you felt
like you couldn't be free.

she began about the kind of morning to make your head spin;
but she dropped her amber ale and it spilled all over her silk dress before
she could tell me and she
disappeared into the bathroom and by the time she came back, I had left
for my cigarette in the rain.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

You


And it will always 
come back to you 
offing that street 
lamp in your sunshine 
summertime smile, 
not a care left to 
care on your lips. 

And it will always 
come back to your 
fingers pressed 
hard and my tongue 
biting rocket 
flight as you licked 
me below the hips. 

And it will always 
come back to my 
promise and 
promise the 
promise to 
promise to tape 
it together again. 

And it will always 
come back
I will always 
come back 
to you. 

crouching

Underline your vacation
and try to get the tan
before the clouds roll in.

Catch that tan before
the man rolls in--
taught in shadows, read:

"You got turquoise nails
in all the right places"
like

"your turquoise nails
fill all my tight places"
but it's public outside.

an audience
--gnarled and enraged--
standing, waiting, in line

to take a short glance
at the President who can't
help but hug the kids

"Mr. President please,
big fan, but quick question
about your State of the Union"

with the swat up and
behind the Sir who has an
oblong office space.



Friday, April 18, 2014

re-spond

don't fly
so fast
because i'm
waiting to
be the last

so high
so rash
i'm trying
too hard to
be the last

not here
you're mad
while you're
telling me you won't
be the last

i want you to care
i want it to crash
i want you to need
to be my last

Monday, April 14, 2014

the subway club


you square the inches between us.
(square tiles
square miles)
squared inches that you

toss away
sunday morning with a
paper.
(stolen)
from the stand
when the coffee man
turned away to toast
your bagel. i watched
you smile at the news

in the laundry mat
waiting for your load of
whites.

later, when you admitted
you stole my
fishnets
like you stole his
paper,
i thought it was a
funny way to
introduce yourself.

you dropped my
dirty fishnets
(very dirty)
into your load of
boxer briefs.

later, i blushed when you
handed them to me.
later, i blushed when you
pushed back my hair,
my skirt,
my (now clean) fishnets.
later, i blushed when you
were panting on me

and i told you that
i thought it was a
funny way to
introduce yourself.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Wish you were her*e

Yearly and herely 
so nearly it's time 
for your dark eyes 
and just a splash 
of corona with lime 

"I'll marry you someday" 
Heather scented: you're mine

Sunday, April 6, 2014

bAmbi.

knighted for prosody
for the art of texting
vocally
for the ability to make a
fool
out of all the kids she
thought were cool.

knighted for embarrassment
for charges of sexual
harassment
for graffiti on the bathroom stall
to match graffiti
on the courtroom wall.

they call her 'sir'
because she's a knight
and she likes it better
than dame.
they all wanted her
at the party that night
but she flipped them the bird
and drove off
all the same. 

knighted for intellectuals
for a talent worth
dollar bills
for shooting up to feel
alright
and pretending her needle
will make her a knight.

Friday, April 4, 2014

coo

stirring dreams, moving
mania; our eyes are closed
as the clock rings through.

fingers become sheets
washed so well. last night we made
the bed, all naked.

today its unmade.
time is singing out, but we
pretend it's silent.

with eyes still shut you
touch the fragile morning with
'five more minutes, love.'

tonight we will drink
wine from the bottle, or box,
music on the tongue--

water down the red,
before, just un café
et une cigarette

and why should we not?
wake up to the tangled wind
because we are here.

five minutes have passed.
still fast asleep. still asleep.
we can't say goodbye

if you refuse to
wake up. we both know you're here
to pull my stitches

out one by one. but
you do not see that it's done.
i have ripped them out.

wake up now to say
goodbye. 'five more minutes, love'
have passed. it is time.