Out of the corner of my eye

I saw your love in the intricate birthmark on your hand

come out of your lonely pilgramage to bruise my moments

in your cupped palm

and your mullberry lies

On that tremulous night in the arbor of a thousand hummingbirds

I turned the the creature out of my wing to ride the boat

down the river of a mutilated song

into a Greek tragedy

with a sherpa smiling

in the flame of my cigarette

Give me back my fingerprints burned into your spine

your pride

for I've come up with an idea

that you will surely see is much more reasonable than carrying

the burden of me

blazed into the headlines of your confessions

I know I'm half crazy

an old sailor sang that song to the tune

of a satyr's lute a long time before you envisioned me

a part of your wisdom

I met him across the avenue in front of the kimono shop

sipping coffee

and luring young girls into the scalpel delights of his candy tongue

spinning morning dreams

across a chalkboard

I wished for nothing but laughter embraced in the glory

of her hair piled high in an updo

like no other

quiet

I stood before the lover

praying beside a spiderweb shivering with dragonflies

the spider crushed

and crying threads of light

in her palm

I saw out of the corner of my eye the candle

lit in the ruins of a blue pool

in the storm of the morning

as I took the bread from the oven

and brought it to the stand beside his bed

he was speaking past the ache in the poisons of his skin

to a stranger in the shadows

who gave him milk

he took mastery of my soul with such holy ease

as I lay into his folds

against the world

outside

and made every ugly thing beautiful

with words

and retellings

until

it  all turned

fair