Married To A Monster

not the kind you think of
when the word presents itself

there hasn’t been gifts
or flowers
or cakes

no declarations of love

I am veiled in quicksand
my ankles stolen
right from underneath me

A preacher speaking “blah, blah, blah, God” ….
and all that stuff

my dear family and friends
gathered around me
laughing

a single dove laying on
an altar
plugged into oxygen
plastic wrapped for perfection
suffocating

the caterer
with the smile of a thousand devils
reminds me to pay my bill

tonight we roast the dove

A Different Skin

Blue brick stone eyes,
like four leaves, I am in luck.
Liquid doesn’t drip from rock.

Not all skin is the same.
Some grow into cat-o-nine tail,
but you…

you douse poison like a God.

I am witness,
without religion,
without faith,
without hope,

out of the blue,
brick stone eyes
came to me

an old idea –
a different skin
growing on me.

How To Sleep In A Gutter When You’re Not Dead

Curl up raw, stranger. Where is your
husband’s thick pockets?
You must be one of those different
colours.

I’m dead on my feet, you’re
sleeping in the gutter. Five days
in February – we both struggle.

Half a dozen snowflakes
ring the city, one man
hangs high above the river
two blocks down –

I can’t get my gown down
when I hear the secrets –
you shiver under the ice
and I like it,

biting my bottom lip, I’m nervous
for the next move.
Who’s it to be? Me or You?
All is well and dead on this side
but you look alive –
try to get a grip around your neck, but
you slump over
the cold.

Where did he go with his large gloves?
Are you beating like a cat fish or more
like drums?
Your colour is looking frozen.
Don’t pull those tears off too early or
you won’t recognize me.

I’m sorry for you, sister, losing
in this land, but when I see your secrets,
I tremble from a cursed realm
and I am ready to fade into the big city,
9 o’clock,
locked up with something like a vacuum cleaner
and let you go.

The Devil’s Home

The sun lays September to rest,
my single tree quivers
against black canvas, frost steals my breath
and this night makes it hard to be a river.
My moon cannot gaze quick
enough in any direction, I stumble
over boulders, though these dormant feet stick,
one-side of heavy rubble.
Gentle, I offer, white whispers,
(and knuckles), as I lay my head to rest,
because, as he often does, the reaper
shreds nightly peace, to build a home in my chest!

This Wild Death

I am sitting in a mirror,
hurrying truth faster than it has time
to find itself,
my skin is catching up
and I am missing everything.

I let the tigers out, they crawl
around, scratching my walls,
guarding the music that played three years ago
while I unwrapped myself
for love. I can not
make them leave!

This room is buried
deeper than his coffin. I breathe
less than the body he left
behind, tight blue lips
whisper
how cold it is down here!

Dig me out of this mirror,
this wild death! Is killing me
a plan? Is taking life
straight from my skin
a revenge? I can not
start a dead heart. I can not.

May 5

Today is nothing.  Gray ghost
canvas.
Every color has been broiled
out, to evaporate in
ammonia scented windows.

The kitchen is a common place
for rainbows, for
sunlight.
How many times has a wife
picked yellow kitchens?
Stitched yellow sunflowers
into their children’s memories?

Today, the kitchen is nothing. White walls
splattered
with greasy old moments
that reflect in the glass shower walls,
in the colors
from the sun outside.