Termites gnaw at the root of eternity
having no end but a beginning
what is, was
what was not, shall never be
& all is wood-rot within
a blighted tree

When the blush on the rose deepens to crimson,
and the petal skin cracks with wilt,
Which spidered Arachne spun these veins,
Shriveled in spite & pity?

I took the path of needles,
let the distaff pierce and bleed
and rouse me from slumber

I suckled too many boys who wouldn’t grow up
And some wolves who left me crying

My only thought now, a tower,
The solitude, if not the right,
to a maiden’s bower…

Fable
I. Tenere
Pellucid chariot extracted
from ignoble gardens;
Rats consecrated equine.
Origins of streets you've crost,
Cannot be held against
The pristine creature descending;
Who after all, flees barefoot from your construct.

II. Occulte
Sister, cleanse yourself in earth & cinders;
I will envelop you dryadic in ash,
Conceal you in stone,
or else divinate a well
too deep for shallow lusts.
Somewhere there is willing
A man to split stone & wood
In search of God.

III. Vox
Drawn dripping from womb
Swathed in a chrysalis of satin
How cold the exposition of his mouth
Against embryonic flesh.

Alternating Current
Lambent in wire & glass
the arrival of artifice;
No schism of nature
could birth pretense
of this nature.

God wept surely,
At the unmaking
Of your image.

Tonguing fictive ideals
& stock panegyrics
on dulcet lips.
Your court of Maenads
will serve your corse
As Orpheus.

Splintered as statuary,
Marble veined with violence,
A swallow or else nightingale
Recalls enough of possibility
To bleed life back into thee.

Physic
coalesced in a droplet of ice
an incident of glass for sand
to mimic soil in the desperate press
of frost to molten panes of stasis

Foundation
Half-utterances rippled,
phrasing effaced in sandcastles
& the relentless movement of sea gulls
I turned to the sea as once to you;
it splayed agape at my nakedness
& crumbling monuments of conceit
(for that is all we shared)
you gave it voice in susurrations of shell
& knew the reason for sandcastles

Breath
Mortality is the tell-tale clock
sewn within a cavity of heart
Inexorable mechanism
'Pestis eram vivus--
moriens tua mors ero.'
Philosopher & physic
Susceptible still
Cannot incantate against
The affliction of breath
'Cogito Ergo Sum.'

He calls me crazy, but at least he calls
This lacks the tremulous novelty
More an ache endured
To the azure of his eyes
Am I now inured?
How oft I prayed for surcease
But passion run cold
Is a dear-bought peace.

Fisher-King
Only the spear which wounds can heal
Another sacrament of sorrow
Pour the wine & let the blood flow
Your wisdom dissolves in vinegar
Such is the taste of consolation
The succor of embalming kisses

Briars
I left you there,
You let me go,
Caught within our cinema;
One standing still,
One turning wheel,
Spindle, thread, skein to skin
I'm pricked & dead.
What distance now evades my sleep,
That I am left & you have turned,
Sorrow sown is mine to reap.
Alone, as I would be, have been,
The engine idled as I wept,
Noxious peace overcrept.
Not hundred years nor all your tears,
Could this beauty wake.
What distance now evades my sleep
That I am left & you have turned
Sorrow sown is yours to reap.

Disciple(ne)
This is an exercise in letting you go;
Kept stale dusks of your cigarette breaks
A cadence let slip from the mouth of God
But mostly, the etching of a glance.
Suspended, a desiccated rose flawed by eternity
Blood will not keep the veins as dust does yours
Life needs must wilt or be hung.

His path is gallows borne
Where the soulless seek Lethe
Nightly 'til morn