belascollage

her legs in the grip of lace --
black vines of lace winding up from the asphalt,
liquid roots welling in her combat shoes.

licorice gum spicing her talk.
charcoal dusting knees & fingertips.
& smoke. cloud rising from her shoulderline.

hair a floe of lava
bleeding heat through the fog.

ashes like pepper
wandering the winter air,
false snow spotting her lips.

& she flaming. a fresh-lit matchstick
yellow from the sulphur, gold spark
taunting a colorless moon

before falling on the sidewalk.
& the lamp-post reflecting the flame.

Parkbench

before you pass beneath the lamplight

mark the moon's violet edges
bleeding into the clouds,

suffusing your used smoke with wisps of blue,
lighting my teeth not with longing
but with a faint plea:

forget me, but come again to this bench
where our thighs have splintered,
our tongues have split,

and our hands spread starlight
though the cabernet dark

striking like winecups & smashed in the instant

Olivet

Tree rock, root rock, blackstone bed 
where we slept, watchers
breaking lookout

While olives, bats, dark stars
hung quiet in the trees, blind
but waking into moontide

Silver the backbone ridge
of stumps, of naked tubers
& we lay beneath this spine

Above, a boulder, a skull
shone white like a goat's belly
tender side up

There too a knotted heap
of body, knees and forehead
a crop of stones

Cold as rubble on Olivet's peak
& not willing to rest, he planted
bloodflowers on the hill

Which at the first sunstroke
we woke smelling: salt, licorice, iron --
bouquet in a deadly cup

When Our Organ of Wonder Has Failed

When our organ of wonder has failed
and we our own physicians have cut it free,
washed it, packed it clean on ice,
we awaken to a rallying heartbeat
half-cheerful amid bland breakfast and flowers.
We will leave the gurney soon,
travel through hallways, elevators, turnstiles
back to our old affairs.
Anesthesia is merciful -- we cannot see again
what secret metallurgy we have done
to forge a tougher organ, indifference,
from castoff love.
But when from age our anomie cracks
and we return searching to the lab,
there we will find our grail --
a freezer bucket labeled "wonder"
stashed between the tarry hearts.