time fogs
a feather in her handwriting falls faintly
beneath the steam on the surface of the mirror
…
covalent glyphs dribble down my chin
the first time i hear her, the look in her eyes
sun swirling across pepperbright skin
…
“what do you mean he kissed a leper?
“what’s the point in that? you kiss them
“and they fall apart.”
suddenly the sweetness of some fruit
i can’t recall
memory’s maw models some flowery drupe,
not a mango
spread across a lisp thin wheat
its saccharine spear implacable
i heave on repeat, breathe
in hopes of dislodging the pneumonic
of seeds, split spit and juice — an unmistaken
but missing flame
[for Matthew Rohrer, 062120121546]
Millsis Adoma,
she said it to me in bed “”
but, it can’t be lifted
you were a manacle, like speaking
in code: Adoma Millsis
one_
touched.
the memories you placed before me
laughed out onto the table, antiques
appraised, then returned to collection
in code, of course.
in code, you were strong: unfragile: harkness
hung from the stable. but now i am here, decoding.
legs beneath my writing desk: worrying: eroding.
in code: the stable.
you’re both here, cutting, crashing, set upon the beach
for the first time: miraculously: miserably: confused
hand-in-hand, our mouth cast out over the pacific
i cut, you crash, we’re all watching for this
purple sunset.
in code: misery stretched out over the ocean
like a tightrope: hung from the stable.
don’t close you eyes: sleeplessness is a gift
accept your giftlessness, sleep: in code: she said it to me
here i am again, beside her
lifting the language, exposing
the bleak, black experience
of,
two_
we’re here beside bibles
dread thesaurus, rhyming dispair
pitter plots of rotten condensation
like
dry sharp tip of a knife, blood
bitter bite of a page-thin blade
played to lip and jaw and
like
mentally there is no weight to curl, it’s all power
perceived through a prism; when you move your hand slow
across the patients’ covers it trembles, imperceptibility
a cheap parlor trick. like, the fear is in your know.
like
we’re here among the bibles, our teachers’ patient parlors
and we’re like waiting, clock watching, tossing knives
into the softwhite up above.
three_
like speaking in code: i’ve stopped thinking about myself
just long enough to address you. once i’d known
apelike kings and a snakelike pig; we knew each other.
she said it to me in bed “”
but, it cannot be lifted
your manacle is speaking
in code: Adoma Millsis, once touched.
