Vampire Lily

4.10.12

This is the place where i’ll leave these words,
not in the open space between us
where i am always alone,
or against your cheekbone
where i have imagined your skin,
warm and corporeal against my mouth,
This is where i leave it all.

And this is where i’ve laid line upon line,
like the heat from your chest
where i’d set my hands,
writing pages of language i’ll never send,
of all you were the night before,
of how we dreamed of sleep yet dreaming still,
This is where i leave it all.

And you’ll have become starlight before i forget,
the curve of your shoulders,
how i’d rest my head,
with the balance of all i’ve never said
soft and honest, though deep like bone,
but this is where this begins and ends,
This is where i leave it all.

Fire & Wane

That night in the forest,
you said that my hair
reminded you of pale fire
as it lay across your thighs

That night beneath the canopy,
when the rain came finally,
green smoke lit the branches
and drifted into its heights

You said that i was
your deep end of the ocean,
that my saltiness
made you thirsty for more

and as we made bare shelter
of arms and boughs and
the soft curve of the gully
where the rain had poured-

i became that fire for you,
my skin the wane of the moon
and making us a temple of the evergreen
we slept in its silence like a womb.

Crash… Collide… Connect

a million years ago,
when first we burst from each others realities
a thousands stars,
upon a thousand planets
crashing wayward onto abandoned beaches
making them ours~

were we not,
beautiful and brave, wearing our cloaks of flame
a million light years
from who we once were
when we collided starboard
on that primitive shore~

and so now,
i would kiss you, still knowing your place in the universe
a billion miles from where i am
flatfooted and bare on this rock,
wrapped in that shimmering cosmos
still connected to yours~

Speaking in Tongues

I place upon your lips these words,
to speak out loud where ever you go-
to wrap around your tender body
as i would my own mouth
with a sensual gasp as these lips part,
hovering over you.
I would lay down speech
subtly, over your pale, warm feet and let
it trickle slowly down your arches
like bath water
to comfort and dissolve you
in hot, embracing waves-
licking your calves on the way up,
longing to tremble against your hips,
i could do this for you-
if only you would take these words
and bend them around your giving form,
take them into yourself, each shivering syllable
melting against your vibrant tongue,
embrace this language and
feel it’s hunger throb and resound,
a secret lover or a fetish that
appeases your darker side-
it is a dialect that i translate,
a tongue i will speak for you alone.

Shake it Down

When first i kissed you, your heart tripped against my palm
like a small bird desperate to escape my hand-

And so i buried my fingers in your hair
to keep you still, to keep you with me.

You said i was one of those girls that you couldn’t understand,
some girls just kiss, others tangle you up-

They climb into your bed with your tee-shirt on,
stripping it off over their heads-

but i make damned sure to shake my hair down-
i’m one of those girls from the other side of town.

You’ve never crossed the tracks before or stood beneath a window
with your collar turned up…
but then you kissed me.

Philistines

“Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet”

…so like Samson, you swore
you wouldn’t raise the sheers to it-
but while you sleep, i bind you up,
bowstrings and ropes and woven locks.
All for that soft thread of hair
encircling my fingertip…
…and so like Delilah, i smile
my mouth mimicking the curve
of her hips.

Baptism by Fire

It shall be done.

Whether i am strong enough
or brave enough~
whether i shear off the curls of my hair,
whether i dress in voluminous gowns of silk
or as a boy,

it shall be done.

And i have made peace with it.

They would have me at their mercy, bowing before them
like a shivering leaf, fluttering at every breath of wind,
exhaling my fear with each twitch of weakening branch~

but that, i shall not be.

For i have held council with angels and kissed the feet of Christ,
i’ve had my armor pounded smooth with the tears of virgin spirits~
so shall i be anything less to them,
those who have spoken in hushed, beauteous voice
come calling to the ears of a child~

i shall not fear it.

When those human men, in all their cruel devices
should break me down, should take this mortal body,
reducing it to the ashy char, returning it to the earth,
when only the cool forgiving waters of the Seine would quench me~
i know,
in my brave, fearless soul
that i shall be returned to thee.

i shall not fear it.

With each accusation, with each tightening length of rope,
with each layered twig
i will think only of you, beloved~
be i heretic
be i witch
or be i all those things that God has willed before me~
simple maiden, raging soldier,
servant of France
child of God.

As you, thousands of years before had passed,
eyes filling with the blood your crown had lent you~
selflessly, my one… my love,
you went to the wood and so will i~
in spite of plagues and wars, in spite of babies who leave this earth
wailing  into the darkness before they have even chanced to live~
so go i.

No trial or exalted sentence…
no manipulation of public order or defiance of church,
not even mankind or the recklessness of fate
can keep me from it.

So come now, men and soldiers
priests and kings alike….

i shall not resist it.

It is what i was born for.

It is who i was meant to be.

Come…

and baptize me with fire~