Nevada Smith

Magma

tear my open back this time
like a rocky spine range
deep mishappen left shoulder
follow tremors
earthen diagonal
a fault line leading
through the jagged peak of right hip

dismantle me
and my bare earth body
will show  rough-hewn fractures
you did not yet know

Rhyolite hands melting again
flux fingers more viscous with every
breathe that flows from fire-spout lips
to molten collarbones

give me your hair
in my skies
like scattered ash about the mountainside
choke on my wrists about yours

This eruption is slow
and full of violent quivers

once the earth starts shaking
there is nothing can stop it

so let me rock you
through the floor
and reach your mantle 
with heavy bones
and long fingers

a magma mouth
let me melt you  

Dark Amber

my black jeans your blue jacket
I’m in your room let’s cause a racket
sheets on the floor and close the door
touch me low watch our love grow
this sorry room no more a tomb
my sorry skin has let you in
the dance lights all around
we’ll never touch the ground

again
forget our own skin
fall in love back in
forget us again
 

touch no stone flip all tables
we are so young and able
hold you lengthwise off the bed
I’m touched sideways in the head
drop your voice down low
these feathers weren’t meant for show
soft and sure keep touching her
break handles on our broke doors
that’s what our mouths are for
key to the sternum and lips on fire
my lips to your chest your breathe getting higher

again
forget our own skin
fall in love back in
forget us again

touch dust wringle again
roof and shingle again
love sweat mingle again
broke skin together again 

Touch It

The sky is low

Kiss grass greying 
float across streams 
that remind you of what it felt like to drown 
the first time

slip up sheltered hillsides
slide thrush into the lines in the palm 
of the mountain-hand holding you
like a first date
don’t kiss it until the end
trail tips in tips 
trail the meander of your laugh
into your back pocket
folded napkin. 

The sky is low

scratch your initials
into bright-salt clouds
touch earth no more
there is a cliff inside of you

jump off it

The heavy sky will sink with you
fall tumble over into 
grace
on a hillside

fit back to back 
with the roll
of the earth’s hip

the argonaut cannot find 
your blonde
among the grays and blues
blend them
to cloud

and bend with me

sing night alive. 

Night of The Living Dead

There is a knot in your hair and my left ring finger wears it behind your smile
like a commitment we’ll both cut off someday- the snarls of your ribcage make your tattoos graceful- leave the light on this time- it’s scary with just those noises in the dark like we were monsters and the groans like we were just mindless after flesh- 

I am sliding through your clothes with momentum breaking clawing layers like cheap drywall with a sledgehammer between us is left only the asbestos-filled air as you tell me “I love you”-  for some reason love and zombies go together for me- at least that’s what I tell you- your tongue down my center like watching them run through the center of the woods through the graveyard- moving up moving up moving down moving up- some kind of horrible fluid-like spinal throw through the bones you are in my middle now- moving down moving up- I watch in horrified gorgeous fascination as things move into you as we become something else something perverse you’re not supposed to be there (my center belongs to me) you’re supposed to be here (steal my breath and bite my tongue for me) and our flesh will not cooperate- love always reminded me of zombies and I wonder why as something inside me tells you to use your teeth this time-

I have never asked for this- but they never asked for the disease- is there really such a difference in a hunger you know would be wrong if you were aware of it- of biting your way through necks and leaving gouge marks on bare skin like burnt canvas like your crying smile- you flash your teeth at me and spit- and I am lost mindless you have given me a hunger- there is a turn in which I split you find your center and gorge-

you will suffer this ecstasy and it will be slow because love reminds me of zombies- the way flesh spoils but stays on the bone- the way your hands hold mine like they’ve got gangrene- you only thirst for my flesh so bite me behind my back and steal my heart from behind my ribs- chew it slowly use your tongue and breathe cancer on my face again tell me you love me with putrid breath- the next time you stumble into my room either drunk on alcohol to preserve what’s left of you or just hungry having not been satiated from whatever bodies you’ve ravaged- leave my light on- I want to watch in horror as you asphyxiate me with your carnage- leave me open and bleeding when you go- that way I can poke around and find your favorite parts to display for next time- loving you always reminded me of zombies and I think I know why- 

your hair is sticky and the sweat smells contagious this time- your salt on my lips is burning me my finger is being suffocated by all the knots in you- I can’t find the off switch I don’t want to watch this anymore I can’t stop you- quit biting my neck don’t suck my heart out through my sternum get your lips off of my chest I am shaking I am burning is this what it feels like to become you the panic the rage the hunger turn the lights off I don’t want to find myself in a mirror anymore- you’ve stolen my flesh and you’ve broken my back- it is arched spiral with you at the center you are my center I can smell you- I can taste your breasts from across the room keep your legs from swaying me under you- turn the lights off because I can’t close my eyes or I might scream- loving you always reminded me of zombies and now I know why.

The First Sex Poem I Ever Wrote While I Was Still A Virgin

I want to taste your passion, 

Salt of your moisture, 

Slide hands like slip’n’slides, 

up and down your thigh,

rolling hips like position and power, 

match rotation, 

tongue meets tooth of-

other lover

there is no other

we are not two 

i am one in you, 

forget the world, smooth skin is my earth, 

terra cotta eyes full of mischievous mirth, 

i’ve forgotten your name, 

days worth of pain,

the struggle pays in fruition, 

my touch and yours, fruit blooming the plain,

and planes of thought 

shift and hover, 

flickering out of focus, there is no other save my lover, 

tongue out of cheek, 

no need to speak, 

my tongue kisses your skin, smooth and hot, makes me weak, 

hair knotted, sweat permeates the air around and above, 

we crash through layers like birds latched for the fall of love, 

parting only to catch our breath, 

sensations sensational, 

understatement: recreational, 

eyelashes flutter, 

butterflies take wing, 

our bodies sing, 

moving to stand still, 

I can’t find your back in the night,  but my hand will, 

press tight, press close, 

living blankets against the dark, 

we hold each other soft, 

till morning and meadow lark, 

rising sun brings contrast, 

the light of your legs and the shadow of my hair, 

I haven’t found you yet, but i’ll see you there.

Twist and Shout

I wanna twist into your shout
while we shake it up with the lights on. Baby,
we’ll shake it down
to the foundations
work this unrequited lust right on out of my bones into your body
c’mon c’mon c’mon baby now
let’s
come
into new galaxies
twirling bellowing
hip-flashing throw off
gravity with the force of
our intergalactic
spin and yell
all from this squeaky
bedframe and these
sweatsoaked linens let me

twist

in

while you

shout

out

to the world what love
is supposed to sound like
honey
your sweet salt-liquour
flavour has had me
going from when
I first touch-tasted
those spaghetti-kneed
jellylegs

let me tonguetwist through your bodyshouts; they named drugs like ecstasy after us

so

coil springloaded through my
bloodstream winding your hair
through this heated haze
let’s spiralshriek our way
into a craze
you’re a twisty
little girl all angles and curves
and you arc in ways that
would make pornstars blush so-
velvetribbon yourself around me and I’ll bowtie us together

with your fingernails

screaming

knots

down my back

these shoulders curve round making
my chest into your echo chamber
and here comes the bridge let’s
tangle each other to bits and i’ll
touch you in ways that make aphrodite jealous

I’ve got these magnetic hands you are molten iron
writhing with heat
darling
let’s get viscous

and boil to the beat

spine-mashing shadow-crashing midnight-skin-dashing
shout into me whatever you desire and I’ll twist myself hoarse
til the air around us simply can shriek no more

and before you know it, the song is over.
We’ve reduced this love-shack to rubble
the steam hasn’t cleared yet
let’s see if we can make this single-track flashback
into an all evening marathon

so once more love

let me

twist into you

while we shout

the night

away.

I’m Not Averse To Rough Sex

Let me put your fingers through my bow-tie

and I’ll loop them ‘round my neck 

the way you always wanted

Brief my briefs, force out

the breathe, into submission;

let’s fuck ourselves clean. 

Exercise

He asked her how she wanted it. 

“Harder” was all he got, a moan and a hand begging his back to arch deeper, fingertips gouging sweat lines through the atmosphere. 

“Harder”, she said. 

Funny, in retrospective, how one word can mean so many things.