coopérative cohésive

Linen sheets turn crisp on the line.
Pulled off, unclipped,
squared, tucked, and stacked in a basket.
Heaved, both hands, through the yard,
the crunch of brown grass
underscores her ascent inside.
Under the shingle shade her husband
built, both hands, she tightens folds,
sharpens corners, and tucks the dry away.

ANAESTHESIA
a piano piece echoes
vibrating the empty socket of my hip
a pop and something cracks
involuntarily buckling over
surviving the hard punch of a wooden floor
a single bulb fades
sounds of a violin madly screaming
its last exhale

and somewhere
far in the void that is tomorrow
i spy the semblance of something
a figure walking towards me
i lie
actually i can't see a thing
i can only hear footsteps
leather soles clapping against stone

whisper in my ear
stay down don't move
what is going on
a switch a beep rings loud
beeping and screaming and talking
everyone is in a hurry

a woman a nurse runs by
red-stained white towel
blue scrubs dangle from emaciated bodies
hung by small bows she tied this morning
a toe a finger an arm a leg a face
pieces falling on me like rain
this dead-hole where we lay to hear goodnight

i am dating a painter.
history says painters have periods.
periods have ends. an 'end,'
i seek out technique. afterall,
craft never dies.

my grandmother taught me to sew when i was four years old.
i never asked how to put things back together.
what do i do now? she died too early.

it is imagined/felt sounds of you i crave.
waiting for you to emerge from this bowl,
i can only tap my foot, praying
silently, "Deliver him."

when the morning arrives,
the flowers will be watered;
the sun will collapse into a bow;
and my eyes will wilt.
thursdays are for funerals and goodbyes.

if i could lift my arm, i might
ask the question, but already
smoke fills this carpace - and
i am afraid. you send me
letters stuffed deep into pelican bills,
demand responses, and sing moondance. i
long hard for once-upon-a-times of you, and
poke my nose high in the air, waiting -
waiting for the day the cloud rises and,
once again, i might find your scent.

Pull my arms taught and bend your bow across my back,
send sounds firing out of my body and make me
yelp like the animal i am, that you are.

frozen penchants splayed out across this shore
lure curious sailors to anchor inward, a siren's song
galvanizing the pull and out. a solid meathook.
boring paths into my recesses, plucks the
last plum from its branch and, with baleful
aplomb, extricates -- my treasure and the
white-knuckles of your repugnant fist.

spread me out and tuck in my corners,
carve the arc of my back with your thumbnail,
play my body like a piano - and
make me dance.

sliding through this pool of you,
i can think of nothing but steam,
apricots and transluscence.

galleggiando in acqua senza vestiti,
arcandosi il mio corpo
per rimanere con la perla della vostra barretta.

i could stand in front of you forever,
enjoying the heat on my face and the
red flood on my cheeks. you fill me.
you make me pant.

take the plunge and make me swallow

surfacing. you have to choose one.
deny love and watch the bird die.
love the bird that chooses death.

take rein of that tapering
mane down my back, pull my spine into a bow and
aim. crawling from this bail-bed
to the light of my mourning pane,
i am nothing but equine.

Spitting ice into my cavity,
reprimanding me, seizing the
band of my briefs - both hands -
ripping them front to rear, stealing
glances of my mangled lips, and imagining the
muffled whimpers behind them as
prayers for an encore, he never
stops.

i am your enabler. feed your
sucking wet lip on this landscape.
settle down, breathe, release and make
my skin your home. i imagine
taking you inside - me - draining the very
life from your dried husk. my dreams
wilt, beginning with your hello. come over.
i need you.

he makes a toy of my aperture,
pulling my grain taught and watching
contortions flood my front like storms.
whispering the words i need, i
harbour little comfort in the
roughcast and loam of your hands.

paint my face red and let me
fall from this chair you set
down for me. i cannot stay
up here much longer. i need to
raise my arms to the sky. must i
lift up your legs? face
down into the pillow - and sing.