sonnet

reasons not to do it include:
i would lose you
i would lose song
i would betray god
i would lose you
i would lose song
i would betray god
i would lose you
i would lose song
i would betray god
i would lose you
i would lose song
i would betray god
i would lose you

sex as siege metaphor

the stone i rejected--
already porous, riddled with longing,
weak, weak, so weak
structurally compromised beyond repair--
has become my chief cornerstone.

because
as the rest of me falls to you,
becoming yours, your chattel spoils, the tumbled edifice
your multiple sweet victories, victory over and over, leaves behind,
i find

the stone of my heart
has long been fallen
and needs no lesson
in breaking
before you.

microcosm: stars image

as if the naked body of the night
had lain in a bed of diamonds

and been taken, spread above
the great breadth of the earth--

light from the stones so deep-pressed
dripping down to ground

soaking through layers and layers of dirt and stone
to flow hot in black crevice-depths--

such cold stars
in such a hot night.

an idiotic way to deal with the missing of you

prostrated
before
the restless memory of you--

two parts every old sensation
pouring down
like thick white milky light,
habits of thought, the things i know myself to know
stayed inviolate as the sharp white stars
embedded in the skin
of the arced back
of the night sky

and then
the one part
so new

like tender new grass
so fresh in color it near-hurts the eye
every blade
bending any way
at the slightest touch.

kneeling dizzy

between
these valent things
i know myself
at the very least
to be
yours.