FOSSIL (Jan 2012)
This was a quick response poem which I think will be the beginning of a new short story.
See what you think…
For my burning pain
She pours water
Not water, but ice
She has frozen my pain
Into my heart; and
Its icicles rip shreds
So the blood pours out
Drenching me in the warmth
Of my own demise
EPIDERMIS
Happiness: A sheen of sweat. The tingle under my skin
When you take off your coat
I see it
That tiny sliver of skin
Between your tshirt
And those
Warmers you wear
Its cold in my flat
Dense with drafts and chills
The air nuzzles and bites
Like cold toes on a winter night
But I want to see
I want you to…
Show me that place
Where your blood
Flows
In branching directions
Hurrying place to place
So empty of me
And full of you
Your fingers wrap a bicep
Dragging the material slowly
So the sliver becomes a slice
And I become an open mouth
I reach out
You pull away
Then you a laugh
Why do you wear them? I ask
You laugh and roll them up again
Leaving a little skin
To mock me
Why have you come? I ask
Your fingerprints have been wiped away
Your flecks of skin brushed into bins
The sheets don’t smell of you…
Of us
Anymore
Your fingers leave prints on my table
I watch as they fade away
How quickly you’ve disappeared
How quickly I’ve forgotten
You give me your hands
They’re damp
I roll both sleeves down
Stopping at the elbows
Asking those goose pimples
If they want me
To stroke them to sleep
I know why you came to show me this
Your skin
Scrubbed free of arguments
Of my fingers muddling through it
Now it’s new
Innocent of hurt
Of the scars that love leaves behind
When it’s angry
But not yet finished
It can start again
Rebuild a new layer
Maybe we can too?
