lovesick ghosts might

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

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“That mysterious force that everyone feels yet no philosopher has explained.”
– Federico Garcia Lorca’s definition of Duende.

Childhood is overflowing, burning rough
into dim adulthood. Lovesick ghosts might

poke a hole, shelter your heart, kiss the scruff
of your neck. The dead often do despite

voices stating that they’re not there. Hidden,
like flame, like paper lanterns in the breeze.

Paper birds. Paper burns, leaving ruin
behind. Call that deep magic, what gypsies

still call, “Duende.” A child’s first heartbreak
knows it when it hears it. Nothing can heal

that flame. There is no exit, no logic,
no voice. Even now, adult, you feel ache,

that’s your birthright. All of life is surreal.
What you call pain and children deep magic.

scrumptious

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

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Value beauty beyond danger. The three
flames made flesh, unmerciful fire. Nocturne

on a sweaty night. Dream of queen’s jelly,
your first cradle-song. It’s true that iron

and your touch will render me dead useless.
Ropes and ceiling wax, ripples on nipples,

fields of broken bones. What a horrid mess,
those three words: “time of death.” I have the skull’s

vacant stare. The voodoo doll’s turquoise breasts.
I dreamed you alive and you were scrumptious.

I’ve tasted the tender meat of your hocks,
run you ragged, then made you bleat. Incest’s

shadow. Call me Death’s Dowager; graveless,
dancing, a stranger in ash and dreadlocks.

bad blood

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

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Inside of my mouth, tongue. I’m unwilling
to bite. In the distance the hour evolved.

I wake on my knees again, believing
that I loved you, again. I’ve been absolved,

just like flame. I was the one who plucked you,
spectral weed. The hour keeps changing. Banish

doubt. I burn out each night but I outgrew
your false-hearted lullabies, your fiendish

good-looks. To be free meant that I then broke
you like corn-stalks and concrete. Your mischief;

I’ve raised better demons than you. Haunted
is just a word. And now you’re all – poof – smoke.

I bathe in flames; the one thing strong enough
to wash away all your lies and bad blood.

warm body

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

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When you finally take your last corporeal
form, I’ll bake you sticky buns, your favorite.

Until then, snuggle close; let sunlight, dull
and warm, filter through you. I love ghost smut;

where the dead fall in love. Slowly seven
dust motes move as your fingertip explores

my breasts, smoothing fabric taut; your ashen
touch. My skin is so alive your dead pores

gasp for breath. Will you be this mesmerized
with me once you have a shell of your own?

Or will I be just one more warm body?
Will you, who died for love and once despised

false hearts, leave me? Is it just flesh and bone
that makes you whisper lover’s vows to me?

night fall

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

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The Fates hate me; others make their bedsprings
squeak, I lay on mine alone. At Night’s Fall

there comes ethereal leathery wings
to scrape at my window and on the wall

misshapen shadows crawl, mimicking trees
swaying in the wind. I love Mister Poe

and all the eldritch dark. I know, and please,
darling, don’t preach. It’s frustrating, I know,

to wait for dark things that do not frustrate
our needs. Across the fields, through the moonlight,

slipping between my sheets. I hate to sleep
alone and I do not know why the Fates

refuse me but I’d rather make the night
all mine than to sit up each night and weep.

honey, hemlock and wine

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Not all stores have a LOST CHILDREN section,
but they should. You would not believe the ghosts

who pass through, confused, an endless legion
unaware that they’re dead. I love these Hosts

of the Air, as the Irish call them. Fey,
banshee-wild-eyed and wailing. I wail, too.

As do you. A child is bewitched away,
a sop of wood left in her place. Who knew

you could fall in love with a changeling?
You were once a child of honey, hemlock

and wine. Some say you can’t go back. Bollocks!
Childhood is not a one-way bridge. Dreaming

of the Fairy Down, come, hold me, we’ll walk
entwined, until dawn break and the crow cocks.

child mother and calf

26 Tuesday Aug 2014

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“the bridge remembers” — Wong May

To the forgotten dead, the unhonored,
silent; to those still with untamed passion,

the mad ones, those still in love with the word;
to those never buried, without coffin,

gravestone or name. Come, your lover calls you.
Come, I remember your name. My lovers

number in the millions because those who
take so much pride in race and ancestors

are the worst caring for them. So I call
and call. Some hear. Some answer. Abandoned

is a curse. Come home, love, come. I have love
enough for us all. My bed is nightfall,

my kiss is the moon. Come, don’t be frightened;
wolf and child, mother and calf, kite and dove.

i met two who knew my name

25 Monday Aug 2014

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two

three

four

one

On the road I met two who knew my name
which is never a good sign. When angels

and ghosts know who you are, that sort of fame
only ends poorly. I don’t trust mortals

who claim to know what happens after death.
By life’s own definition no one can.

Mystics travel far. Yogis count each breath.
Skeptics laugh. We’re all sure what will happen

next, poor sods, and we’re all missing the point.
Perhaps I will leave with those two today,

perhaps not. I’m still in deep, my debt
unpaid and I want to tear up this joint,

run wild and be ignorantly blase.
There’s some knowledge that I don’t want just yet.

out of this wasteland endlessly turning

23 Saturday Aug 2014

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Make her a tomboy, one who likes to read;
with hair down to her hips. Every evening

I would loosen it, pick out each hayseed
and green bumble-burr, then brush it, twisting

it up into two plaits, like horse’s reigns
that would hang down her back. She would love math

and stars; fill her summer days with grass stains,
kissing and wild roving. Like Hera’s wrath

none would dare call her “foundling,” “witch’s brat”
or “fay” within earshot. The Blessed Arbor

would be hers; birthright only to children
of the gods. Forgive me, my ghostly cat,

my lost foal; you see, I have no daughter,
and my dreams, like my body, are barren.