the bones hang slack
and the blood cools swift
we shamble forward
toward the rift
no light within
no light without
we trip and fall
swallowed up by doubt
our descent will take
a thousand years
our only company
will be our fears
floating and leaving no trace
the bones hang slack
and the blood cools swift
we shamble forward
toward the rift
no light within
no light without
we trip and fall
swallowed up by doubt
our descent will take
a thousand years
our only company
will be our fears
the beating of dark wings
in complete darkness
and the downy touch of
feathers brushing your cheek
this is no dream, this
eternal blackness
no manifestation of
of unfulfilled desires
or torturous regrets
these are the angels
with knives for voices
they want to sing to you
these are the angels
with razors for hands
longing to caress you
these are the angels
with fire for tongues
and how they want to kiss you
the lady curves her back
hair wet
resting one hand against a rock
as if to hold herself upright
as if unused to gravity
and her legs
fold gently beneath her
glimmering
in moonlight
as if scales covered her thighs
as if the song she hums
can be refused
these words are slow horses
pulling a chariot
with broken wheels
an abundance of syllables
roll against my teeth
yet little remains
to drive the pen
across paper
the aerospace building
looks like a
travel agency
from the sidewalk
but as i pass
i notice the hissing
and an angled pipe
slithering from the concrete
as some kind of
compressed gas escapes
the wall, nicotine-stained yellow
like mom’s fingers
grass dances around
the bare patch of earth
below the spewing mouth
and there is a whiff of sulphur
i try to hold my breath
but as i pass
i wonder where that air
is coming from
an employee desiccating lounge
where drones are slowly
dried and their oxygen vented
to the outside world?
some lab where experimental fuels
burn out of control
and in an attempt to save the company
toxic fumes are funneled
to the damned, unsuspecting public?
i quicken my steps
it’s probably just the hvac system
i tell myself
yes, that’s all that it is
step one is inserting the key
in the back
and having someone wind you up
every goddamned day
tighten that spring
so you have enough energy
to make it
until the next wind up
i don’t know who designed us
to have these holes
in our backs
when the holes are in our hearts
and when will the key fit into my chest
so i can wind it myself
or not

woman, you haunt me
your wild lips linger
delicious porcelain kisses
color of ocean glass
fever of salt
steel perfume
remember
you were universe two
——
for Elusive Trope
Magnetic Poetry Saturday Challenge
O’ Poets of the Virtual Refrigerator
the last night of the carnival
we found a carousel filled
with skeletal horses
the operator insisted
from inside a shadowed booth
that no tickets were necessary
everyone could ride
we watched silent children get on
but never off
as it spun slowly around
a single rotation
silent but for the sound
of gears, never any music
never a ringing bell
for the capture
of the brass ring
only dusty footprints
there were titans once
hecatonchir with fifty heads
and one hundred arms each
if i had one hundred arms
i would never stop
embracing you
if i had one hundred hands
i would want all five hundred fingers
tracing circles on your skin
if i had fifty mouths
fifty pairs of lips
would kiss you
if had had fifty tongues
each would whisper
my love to you
all the titans are gone
and i have only two hands
and one mouth
i hope it is enough
though you deserve
more
neither of us thought to bring
an umbrella
though all the signs were there
dark, sullen clouds in your eyes
and the thunder of silence
rolling between us
i pull my coat around me
and you do the same
with your own coat
self-comfort without any warmth
i make an umbrella for you
out of my bones
stretch my skin across the ribs
and this rain falls
red as a river of regrets
and never gets you wet
falls as red as everything that
ever entered or exited my heart
my cloud-shaped heart
and you are untouched
——
——
for Jane Dougherty Writes
Poetry challenge #41: In the rain
Franz Marc In the Rain(Im Regen) (1912)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons