The Healer

I put flies in your ears as Helios buries his
words
like golden eggs
in the camel-tossed sand,
you asked who,

I am he,
I am your man,

never resting lest I'm sure where you stand,
camel-colored women wave their prayer flags
in the air
for the victors of Akrophos have returned
fresh from killing fields littered
with dead
dealt death
by their hands,
unbutton your blouse slowly.
not half way but wholly,
where your tits fall unfettered like birds let them stand,
I am the healer who must rest hands on the damned,
you asked who,

I am he,
I am your man.

TA

She Is Seldom

She is seldom relaxed
reserves no pleasantry
scatters her ashes virulently

She is curved like an elephant's tusk
always bent to the task
dialogues long in a shipman's sea speech
divides her love like a kind conquering queen equivalently

She comes when my tongue is wet
cigarettes on her warm breath
breathing heavy wrapped in white sheets
white dreams and a sleep like death

TA

An Empty Seat

I look over
on every day
every.single.day
every single gotdamn day
without missing a single one
every day...
sometimes in the morning
   when the sun is yawning wide in great golden arcs
sometimes in the evening
   when the sun goes heavy to sleep in violet folds
every
single
day
without exaggeration - every single day
from that very last time I saw you
to THIS very day
at some point in every one of those days
(in every single one of them)
I look over
I look over
   I imagine you're there
next to me

and I don't know if that will ever stop.

TA

Late Night Crowd And Them

Accordion sets the pace comme ça
hot hot current leaping leopard through a late night crowd
shoulder to elbow
to hip
to hip
dancers like beautiful Pavlovian mutts in ostrich hide high heel ropers
   start to vibrate
sweat wet lovers pull close pulse into each other's embrace
the notes swell
become alive
becomes a beacon
calling to the hunt
to laugh to circle to drink
to breathe the same breath
to be immortal subsisting for a spell in someone else's life

reach my hand into the sea comme ça
pull a pretty girl smiling in a yellow pattern sun dress
   from the waves
old wooden floor buckling like a trampoline
bouncing like a wooden floor should not
two-step mosh pit comme ça
she smells like jasmine and shampoo and cigarettes
back of her ribcage in my hand
fingers folded into her spine
push her two beats forward
pull her two beats backward

fiddle cries the war rally of my ol' cajun grandfathers comme ça
she is asked to promenade below her own twisted elbow
a damp brown curl clings to her temple
Fibonacci smiles while we twirl
she is teeth and lips
she is yellow fringe and glittering clavicles
she is clumsy
she is lovely
she is all

electric bass swallows the last notes like warm whiskey when the lights come on
she offers her flushed cheek
   and I am forever grateful
grace her soft opal skin with my bearded kiss
where roses blossom
thank you for the dance
it was my absolute pleasure
given to a stranger with a smile comme ça
from a stranger

reach my hand into the sea again
comme ça
pull another pretty girl in another sun dress from the waves
accordion sets the pace comme ça

TA