Long Fingernails

 

Hercules crucified
sprung sawtooth jaws of a steel grey shark
the twisting serpent
Eve in her evening dress fig leaf lingerie
a corset of sun-licked golden skin
institutional quotes of courage
longing
and of loss
hieroglyphs in dried ink
black beneath her flesh

her chrome eyes
orb of playful passion and slick grimace
her astral plane
gathered cordage of fibrous being
fingering husk of her gauge deck clusters
this granted grace of the eclipse's shadow
a dark moon to forget the day
drawing star charts in looping script
in long red scores
across the firmament of my spine.

TA