9/23

That'll teach you to try new things...

Offered my hands to the furnace maw

filled with promises, journals, telescopes, memories

 

that a desperate hope might bear witness

to these my precious strangling rings come undone;

the man encircled, perchance released

 

now relentless yellow tongues

tasting with no sweetness of lips

blacken, warp, char, and mangle

while waiting… wincing…

and

 

Alas, as all gold and silver,

all opal and and pearl,

all amethyst and emerald

tho now become a blazing mercury

will not surrender the anguished flesh

but cling like sweat...

- or a vile habit

 

Cursing! I recoil

draw up the ruined fingers to my breast

and all cools to lead

 

       Today,

       I hung a skull above the door

       with beetles in the eyes

       so in the morning I could not be so careless

       as to smile