In Suffocating Breath

I feel the
dirty secrets her
lips leave.
In bruises
for other women
to read.

Her knife—the sex
she says she can’t give
yet does.

Licking my ear
as if to suggest we
are in love.

Says losing her
virginity was
homemade porn.
That god’s hated her
an abacus or two before
she was born.

“I can’t hate you”
I tell her as her teeth
mark me black and blue.

“You will,” she says
as my long fingers
trace her tattoo.

“Devil’s Bitch” it reads
and she’s incandescent
as a stolen breeze.
That singes with heat
my hair and flesh
that almost bleed.

As our mouths work
to spell emptiness
or worse…need.

Requisite Damage

Not really shy
yet she won’t let me see
her face without paint.

Warns me her X
is an addiction no 12
step programs cured.

Her wit artillery
every put-down strikes
close enough to wound.

Tattoo on her back
rat eaten by a snake
perhaps a warning.

Each fight
erasing distance
as if our landscapes
deserve quantum looks
we’re too blind
to see past.

Wrong redirects
always before
sex inside the vacuum
unable to connect
all small talk is
useless yet its
still good
the sex.

Later
the empty crawl space
of time demands we
discover more than hidden
agendas
Failing that
we take to chemicals
tearing tree branches for horns
bullfighting in the nude
until drawing blood &
blaming the L.S.D.

Self-Mutilation

Giving in
to her mouth in
an alley as if
I could tame a wolf.

She ruins me for
other women
even more.

Wiping her mouth
with the back
of a hand—
I know has my heart.