counting (*) you
●
i imagine a clot of moon from your neck
pulsing black butter & bitter honey.
i fork my tongue to lap at it, to stay close
to the madness; i watch it breathe & not.
feel me feel god pull you from his cunt—
the jerking, your envied bones & their purity.
against the flesh, we sanity & burn,
but to live here, we must forget first & much.
● ●
a directive:
wrench at me through clementine mouth,
past the teeth-scraping stanzaic song
& into some semblance of thought.
as in, what i mean to say, carve into me
a pointed pointer-finger perimeter &
pallid face against morning sky.
no, no— november is all i’ve ever meant;
press a bird down into my chest, will you?
pull a month out spent with you.
● ● ●
i imagine cumming, again & again &
again, each time accumulating lucidity
then, a sinking away—
(a bluish dusk endeavoring
to feel as i do)
● ● ● ●
deep in the violet: bathetic,
minute hand & jagged strokes
we stand at the precipice of conversation
where it turns, now, to ___________
& my nerves open to the air like something skinned
& maddened by my reluctance,
i watch your color change
in a series of little
clicks
& i would recognize you anywhere,
i reckon
● ● ● ● ●
i imagine your polluted fingers
● ● ● ● ● ●
tell me:
i’ve a knife tucked in each corner of my mouth
you’ll trace the stubborn, fueled edges
break the rules, for the greater good,
line scarlet there
● ● ● ● ● ● ●
you slip from my mouth in a rush
you bleed out of my nose for days
your eyes never rest
i watch our complexities twine like sunburnt arms in their shallows
above you, heedlessly, round & round:
your chipped tooth
my chipped tooth
your chipped tooth
my chipped tooth
your chipped tooth
my chipped tooth
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
this simple thing,
battering to get out
in every intake of breath,
nourished there somehow
among the shards & roots & matter,
as slow as a blush,
do you hear it?
—————
*
aboard / about / above / across / after / against / along
amid / among / around / as / at / atop / before
behind / below / beneath / beside / between / beyond / despite
down / during / for / from / in / inside / into
like / near / of / off / on / onto / out
outside / over / past / since / through / till / to
toward / under / underneath / until / up / upon / with
within / without