(a slow poison in the system)


cradle me
stereophonic:
bullet to the brain
right between the ears
and down the spine

you shiver me splendidly

i heave
clutch
gasp
larval in my rebirth
wetwhite and glistening
in places i was once
stillborn

unbraced and bare-boned
(you tore my flesh from me
ages ago)
i'm clawing through the dirt
slick with membrane memories
unweighted with the corporeal burden
of organs--

i hollowed this excuse
of an existence
to take you in


would you choose
such a prison?

could my plea
be sufficient?


drop your shoulders back
and grace me:
steel string vocal chords
snapping under fire-tongued fingers
(or did you always
wrench from me
my pulpy heart,
past cracked lips
that mouthed misunderstandings
so innocently?)


it's more than my
maggoted vertebrae
can bear

i shudder
my last
and then
no more


fetal position
self sacrifice
executed
among similar skeletons

could you
with your slender hands
pull from my mouth
what remnants
may be found:
a soul
like rotted seaweed
coiled around my tongue



the last thing
i have to give












________








a love-ish poem to davey, for reasons i understand now.