Two Poems (July 20, 2010. Issue 19.)
Eating for Two
(Originally in his 2005 chapbook "The Beautiful Darknes"s (believeyourownpress).)
At the dinner table
I can see your skull through your face –
and your skull is made of plexiglass and firecrackers
and the implosion of your mind is brilliant
and scatters your thoughts like teeth taunting a landmine.
I turn on the black light
and your skull grins velvet, purple, crystal
perfect for a lamp in a crackhouse
or as an ashtray.
I reach my hand in
and you are a shiny candy jar
full of treats from Shanghai
and Taiwan.
Rumour has it you are chewy
and with the tang of anaesthetic.
You go for your back pocket
and you hand me the big wooden spoon and say “Go on,
try this most memorable stew – you look insatiable
and I can see your ribs begging.”
I say “I am no cannibal.”
“That’s okay, I am only thinking of you,
so you have only yourself to devour.”
I’ve never tasted myself
although I’ve always imagined I’d be delicious
but possibly a tad salty
and so as I start to chow down I see my reflection
in the cutlery of your glasses
and you are pregnant with me
and I know
I am
eating for two.
Chess Club
That was the way to do it –
nothing fancy, just lots of
incessant stalking,
and a fine variety of desperate,
blunt instruments
to compliment
the barbarism of my
footsteps –
I follow you with the skill of chess
and rook the back of your skull
with anything but chivalry;
your shining knight at home,
having slipped and fallen last night
on clumsy broadsword
on his way to the bathroom… |