never let me hold you back with a self-indulgent
wad of gum��������better that I grow more hair
on my shoes, graft on an extra pair of teats
to nurse four at a time, and then leave my babies
with the dingoes

�������������������������������kiyi-ing, kiyi-ing

the ones that are strong perfect the perverse
mouth�������the ones with lazy eyes
or missing limbs, buck teeth and pimples

����������������or malignant lumps

are taken by lions near the river, and all truths
bloom into carefree kinds of chaos, your fingers
sprout between volumes at Barnes & Noble

low winters, I lie in your lonely skin, paint
what I know of you in oxidized iron on the walls
of these ageless caves � we draw from the same
palette of raw umbers and black soot, smart enough
������to realize the farce of violet

����distance


���������������I could be that pile of old coats
in your shopping cart, I�d decompose just so
into the familiar stench of our compost, but look
for me instead on the A-train to the village
hanging from the bar, pushing pudendum

������������������������������in your face

~