Tau(gh)t

I go back to that no and I sing from it.
I practice epilogue: needlethreadepi-
thelium. As what constitutes mean is the
variance. Perhaps I fly hollow. Into
some you, then. And rest. And where will the drama
queen darling? My tongue is thin without your tongue
to build a team on. Because we have been there,
dear Ranger. Let me punt to you. Face first is
the new tyranny of winged-ness. We were
a Jerusalem of avalanches gone
cleanly. Grip the resting heart, wresting. (Love, rest.)

Edible

What was an avalanche played a fawn and
did it cleanly. I weighted. You, who fish
on the flatbed, we are a parliament.
The theory of perilous and the pleasure of a boot
coming down. Down addiction, down. That’s a
grief, girl. I trust that you know all of the dinosaurs in
the city. The gender of hush is press press. Periphrastic.
I holy cleavage. And of subjunctive, I holy this.

reclaim (written for LGBTQ graduation at the University of Arizona, 2009)

go. be like a giant, and go there singing.
carry concrete and in the other hand, carry water.
share not only teeth, but all the edges of your mouth.

go there, and be useful, hold up a mirror.
cartographer, be a dream, and go there dreaming.
in the shape of a spoon to draw the drawbridge, then spill out.

go. be like a garden, and demand more weeding.
demand a fire extinguisher. a welcome mat. sequins.
in every room demand a doorway. a window. a world.

go. be like a drag queen, and stop the bleeding.
rescue fear from the throats of the almost dead.
retrieve misplaced sharp things from the lungs, the heart, the word.

go there, and be critical, be beyonce.
terrorize simplicity. sit on a stairway and think of nothing.
bathe in all the liquid that still struggles in our chests.

go. be like a god, and make a lovely mess of things.
go. be like a telephone wire, give someone sturdy.
go. be like the flying thing not flying, and seek rest.

Thieves (for Lisa and Eve)

I am convinced that there are sounds
with which my sorrow is unacquainted.
That there are arms who mean more
to the body they fell upon than the hands
by which they are inextricably known.

What publicity may mitigate for the breathing.
I offer you handlebars: all the liquid
that still struggles in our chests.

That we may hold this space gently.
and believing.
That our heads may float to Heaven
and garnish our ears.
What comfort scams rampant and allows:
say grieving.
What language mimics is oblivious:
plead rest.

Dress

The plan, with you, was always easy. Plan empty and
call it open. Plan midnight. Call down
Heaven when in the throat of the suffocant.
Plan cigarette and call it cigarette.
Call down glass on the generous of the eyeball.
Call down canyon walls careless. Call it bleeding.
Call down DNA when what we harbored
was shiny. Call it political, politicians. Call it drift.

policital and all, in glass

let there be silence. and plenty.
let there be end tables. breasts. buoys.
let there be exit ramps. breasts. balls.

when, what essentially I made off with was your stair.
like a tunnel grieves a view of the sky:
all the emptiness between my teeth is a gift.

pray down the mirror our reflection says we
see through. your new lover on one side of the street.
your new bicycle. and then, therefore, you.

pray down a rope around the syllable
that haunts us. the narrative that continually takes
itself too seriously. a symphony of strangulated rests.

our music undone periscopically.
the pornography remains inexhaustible.
a white flag fading at the root.

and what void can we still find our way into.
victimless.
a hand signaling daylight to the sky.

a myelin mouth frozen open in the bedroom.
what you recognize is not me, is (not) me.
that, inside the body which is not your body

to defibrillate, your plastic hands articulate a bruise.
(I love you more with your pants down.) pray down an overpass.
because a demonstrative is lingering in the airway.

all pedal and unfrozen – will you see me?
pray down a casino and then a cornfield in the coda.
(prayitdownprayitoverpassmeoverprayitdownpassitoverprayitback)

tooth enamel is the strongest substance in the human body.
shame is not something we carry.
it multiplies in the recesses of our mouths.

because one hand still reaches into the empty.
pray down the pressure of your hand on my body.
a violence of comfort and request.

shoulder gratitude

let that it be visible

and sooner: your hand-

ing me row. and the dribble

of a belt coming down. let

that arthritic in a game-

room is still gaming. weather

inconsequence, yes: hands down.