not tonight

the cigarette lighter knew it was all wrong.

she wasn’t about to make nicotine ignite

into wraiths of addiction and phantoms

of a slow pleasure that can curl lips

like love.

 

not tonight.

 

it was shaking. the caressing hand;

those familiar, yellow fingers

so clumsy this full moon of a night.

 

flicking the filed throat of her purpose.

 

to burn. to become the first voice of a sacrifice

usually to lungs

offered to the great god of “not now”.

 

not tonight.

 

Reviews

[alan peter kelly]

the great god of not now...sparkling...my eyes and mind are burning...

[Emily B]

not tonight, frustrated beyond purpose, who knows when the chance will come again? I've got to get back to work. You've just hooked me so much. Each piece more stunning than the last that I can't quite get free of the reading. Maybe just one more.

[Gandré]

this is amazingly well written. favorite. the sort of poem that has a grey denouement, the frustration moment is so vivid. so perfectly clear... ok, then love..... perhaps tomorrow...