For whatever reason the rain falls

with only half its heart tonight, moreso

starlight morose

along my skin, however the thought

was too much

& not enough. So thoroughly I fell

into love, an obsessional

concerning gold, golden, & gold-filled darknesses,

concerning how darkness makes a puzzle

out of you. Moreover, if I could

swallow the night

as the night swallows me.

Maybe you noticed when you started school. On the playground there were primary colors. There was the smell of juice dribble on pavement with ants, rusted metal sunshine, dust on rubber like kickball if you don’t want to play just sit in the dugout or maybe, maybe you had to play for gosh knows why. There were all the other children and you were there too. Well, I mean, it was more like you were near there. Or beside there. Definitely you were near beside there. Definitely you were not with the other children. Always not with. Indefinitely. It was lonely and made you tired and that’s just the way it was and is forever and ever amen.

call me a

one-trick pony, a two-trick tramp, or a

three-trick delirious bitch; call me a

late-night doll

wind me up and bend me over, pose

me perfect and crave me madly

pierce my porcelain

skin and paint me red; call me an

off-kilter hit or miss, a stand-in to

pull out

call me crazy and call me yours

a melody screamed apologies when it saw the ivory split;

pretty keys crack like teeth

and I could hear your bones slithering, sneak, such

feeble fingers gorgeous, break

just a

blood-muddled mosh pit by the heel of my boot