Joan

The smoke takes her like a man never
could, circles
round her body, fills
her lungs, sucks,
her ears, plugs
her nose, burning
wood in every
entrance, every
hole, every
pore, burning
wood to take her where she's never
been before.

**

how the little moth circles

so slow

so soft and low

deep sea diver

of my air

Mortal Jewels

I wore the wounds like mortal

jewels, they hung in solemn

weights, clung like grave

suspicions, wrung my body

dry, sung my final

dirge with sorry

whispers of

goodbye

Warm Women's Perfumes

warm women's perfumes carry
coolly on the cold air, the
smell of their clothes, the
smell of their hair, barely
fixed to their bodies, barely
fixed anywhere, oh the
warm women's perfumes carry
coolly on the air

/

tonight I cleaved myself in

two

***

M's sister had been buried beneath a great rock near the cemetery, a tiny baby girl in a gem-encrusted box made by their father. And now M's ninety-year-old body, burned, turned to ashes and poured into an urn fashioned by his grandson, was set to be lain by that box. A procession of long-limbed boys and thick-fingered men moved through the gardens, made its way bewitchingly through the headstones, each figure bound to the other by a white rope. The leader of this procession, M's nephew and the eldest of the family, held M's clay vessel majestically aloft in his be-ringed artisan's hands, a wild spark in his green eyes, emeralds set in a silver mask.

Aftermath

Naked

drunk

and home.

Do I

smell like all

the girls

I danced with?

Have the boys

left all their

smiles

on me?

I danced tonight.

I did.

And now I'm

naked

drunk

and home.

For God's Sake

hold her by the ghost of her waist

dance once more before dawn

see love fill the frame of her face

cry goodbye at the horn

We Are Going Out Today

We are aimed at the city.

We are freshly washed and woken.

We are combed and clipped.

We are shirted, skirted, suited.

We are waxed and slicked.

We are riding machines today.

We are sealed in travelling containers.

We are pleasant, patient, polite.

We are watching the world through windows.

We are keeping our knees to ourselves.

We are keeping an eye on the stops.

We are smiling at jumpered children.

We are passing the movement of morning.

We are going out today.

We are aimed at the city.

Williamstown Beach Without My Bathers

converts me into a billowing
wader

clothes
hoiked

shorts knotted into culottes

shirt rolled above the
shoulders

water
warm and clear.

I never quite planned on coming here

but here I am
a lonely daughter

caught out
(towell-less)

sand removal not totally thought out
(tote bag a mess)

but who gives a shit.

I am here
in the water

and that is it.

A Pointed Steaking of a Girl

with waves of hair and blaring

eyes tries on

an embroidered blouse,

her boyfriend permitted to

peak through the curtain,

give an honest but gentle opinion,

the girl guides his answers with forceful questions,

his answers give way to her

prompts.

~

sweet-coconutty-teenage-girl-stink