The last time I was in the room with a rapist
flowers speckled my hair,
pink as privates, cloud-white. I considered our honeymoon
and thought about how we loathe
sunshine, but would create our first bed on roses
after I have spent five or more years removing her thorns.
I did not know about clotheslines being used
for more than our damp second skins.
She once described it as a construction zone, being the
property of some government
who does not care if it ruins someone's habitat
to build a brand new home. But I do not know if I can say
the same; a house is your mountain above
all hurt, only you
can jump from the top and make yourself bleed.
There I sat and swung on wooden benches,
my most disturbing thought a wonder of how it could hold
me. The sky was supposedly blue,
just now I cannot remember, colorblind of any
possible plane forming smiling men above our heads.
Sometimes, things are not on the tip of my tongue
but still making their way through my
brain-cells. I wanted to lay down on my stomach for love
be a carpet of hair, unshaven legs, sweat beads
until the clouds showed me handcuffs. My
safe lover, agoraphobic, now I can understand why.
I did not think about blankets being used as
shields, or mattress springs made of barbed wire.
If I had known, I would have eaten
my own hair and thrown up every petal on your doorstep,
their broken flower souls, now warm-blooded.
YOU ARE READING
opals
PoetryA gemstone made of a hundred different ones, a gemstone with fire inside. He never finished his cigarette, put it out on my palm. I became an opal. Flashes of red, pink, sweet petals of flesh. I will love myself as soon as I can learn to love the un...
