Dread and Fascination
It was so easy, waking up with the sun
Wearing my veins like a string of rubies,
Freshly dug, looking up at the flame I long to bathe in.
I cannot quell the itch beneath my skin.
Though the sun has shown me what lies beneath my translucent walls
Still I claw, peel myself back
(How my insides glisten)
And pull out an iron key, still hot from the forge, covered in sinew,
And tenderly
Press it to my lips
In triumph.
In matrimonial rite
I marry a filed edge to my walls
I must see threads of red spill out of my mouth and down into the floorboard
So that I may grin, knowing the grail is full and brimming with blood.
Quickly I grow a taste for ground rubies
Sprinkled onto my eyes: a bloodclot bane.
The heart drives a rhythm surging into every tree in the wood
Where dead cicadas chirp even in winter.
I force my fragile painter’s hands under the bark of every trunk
To find the door where the drum’s pulse is the strongest,
Where my senses ebb away and only hunger remains.
Truesight of sun: a mouth yawns on my forehead
And devours the still-beating heart whole;
Satisfied, I lick the fire off my lips
Knowing I will win every race against the sun
For I can find sunrise in my ruby pupils whenever I wish.