detour

I watched
you crack open
redemption
from your chest
as if it
were your heart. My
sleeves were soaked
with chicken broth
from sick
Sundays. When I
smiled, smoke
escaped through
my teeth. Your
iron lung coughed
then sputtered
before
you took
a sharp breath
of smoke.

free-wheelin' 1

sun drum soup cans and
feather weight collars adorned
with graduated chicken leeks inside
boxed wood grate baskets and
gravy red bracelets
with Mercedes sun airline
over the fielded
white elephants.

Teague

bruises blossom a

most beautiful shade

of pomegranate

on her skin

while

underneath my

fingertips

i dance while

not even

moving

save for

the opening

of

petals.

darker black

in my mouth forms
the shapes of mountains
but my hands grasp cotton
and Judge Judy is on
so i breathe in apathy
to release
i want to hold you
and not to love you, perhaps
but to feel eternity
with the folicles of your skin
and to trace the battle lines
to call cease fire
at least until we finish
our earl gray tea
in your mouth
a seed
i water.