Vantage

I watch with equal eyes

When I hear the roar

Of screaming machines

And see their paths cross 

With the silent hawk

I watch with equal eyes 

Those dense earth bones

Whose only dream

Is to also see with great distance

And to rule from above

The great big below

I watch with equal eyes 

As I think how far we’ve come

In another whirl around the sun

Like Icarus who wore 

His father's faulty wings

I tangle my glory in yours

I watch with equal eyes

As we fall out of the sky

Then remember how to soar

Fortune

Fruit
Not of the sea 
Washed up
On the beach
Juices leaked 
Into the arid sand 
Ripening

Driftwood

Planted ashore

Crowned with

A nine inch iron beacon

Half hammered

Rusting

Pilot

He will never walk among

The kings of wands.

An obsession with desire,
Though a desirable affection,
He is only king of my thoughts;

A beautiful craft constructed from
Aluminum touches, muffled voices;

His hands grip the yoke.

Tonight, I tell him which way to go,
And he teaches me what I already know—
Go fast, go slow—what difference does it make?
Our destination is always the same;

The pilot owns the navigator,
The sky owns our fate.

ERIS

Nature loves to hide
Within the mortal coil
With the wrath of a woman
Who owes nothing,
To whom nothing is owed.

She spurns desire and

Delights as it incinerates 

The insides 

Of all men;

She demands no sacrifice,

No tribute

For what could she possibly need 

From the weak and pitiful?

She offers loyalty to none,

Her only devotion is destruction

In a land of fruit and brimstone

Vengeance sprouts 

Vine-ripened

And words are not spoken,

Chanted.

The Forge

First unmade
To be forged in fire
Remolded and reformed

Born again, ablaze
Baptized in flame

To emerge as something new
A weapon, a blade 

Perhaps a tool 
First unmade.

Persephone took a lover

Persephone took a lover

A happy initiate

Under sky

Under foot

She sought the perfect tryst

And elected

A man so divine 

In his darkness

She chose to follow

A shadow

Leaving the sky behind.

Debt

To the snake in the beak of a bird of prey,

Who colored my sun black?
To whose night did I bring light?

How did the stars map two charts

In the perfect shape of Yin and Yang?

Where did we go wrong?

Did we forget in conception

Our first inception?

This is not a curse,

But a fundamental law of the universe:

The karma you create 

Is the debt your children will pay.

Say a prayer for our daughters that it's not too late

For you to change your ways.

Blood Banner

The goddess of pleasure
Asked me to choke her to death

She signed the consent
So I wore the Nautica shirt I stole from him

A blood banner
And bled my tears into a vessel so thin
It dripped from within.

In he came
And out he went
Just like that
Till there was nothing left

I am spent

I am whole again.

A woman's body is designed for sacrifice, don't forget.

If one of us is going to tell the truth

Then I must confide:

I'm insulted

You actually believe I'm too stupid

To know you've been fucking with me 

This whole time.

It was worth it.

To peer into the shining black void of those eyes

Where there is nothing alive to find

Just a hollow cave of cold treasure, not a dragon in sight.

It was worth it.

I decided from the start;

To see how you would play each move

While I played the part;

This curious kitten, this deviant divine

Feline to feline, I must confess

I've always enjoyed your little tests.

It was worth it.

A chance to finish the game, to claim my victory—

I entered the ring armed with the 5 P's

Fighting to stifle a laugh for every time you telegraphed.

True naivety is arrogance;

Make no mistake

I heard every word, I saw everything.

Oh, how deeply you believed each turn was in your control.

But surely by now you must know

I am a diligent opponent and a student of all— 

Even ones like you so removed from grace

There is nowhere left to fall.

Despite this glaring character flaw

(being blinded by arrogance and underestimating every woman you meet—since I have to spell it out)

It was worth it.

You beautiful coward. Chthonic creature of sadness and loathing.

In the end, I win.

By the way, weird is spelled with the e before the i. Just like receipts. 

Sweet dreams.

Prophecy

I met a girl named Faith 
The day I gave up on you
Five black vultures perched on a pitched roof
Stared down at me until I listened to the truth 
While the wind and waves whistled their tune
Ravens cawed in my ears
Plucking and consuming all of my fears 
Then carried them away, bellies full
Back to their realm, to return them to you.

Tartarus

I’ve been digging
So deep
I’ve found the light
On the other side 
Unseen and white
Cold and bright.

Six feet deep in black mud,
Rain on my sunnies
And sun on my tongue,
I lick these thoughts 
And carry on.

Transfer

It's a black-tie affair

The tether of silk and leather

I choose to wear
Bound to my sovereignty
It strokes and chokes me gently
Until I am asleep.

The slippery cord uncoils from my neck

Before you wake me for another test

But in the darkness of our bed 

I hear a new voice instead

The one that I now answer to

And follow his instruction on what to do with you:

A quick snip

The line is dead—

And finally, a good night's rest.

The shadow of your echo no longer haunts my ears

Blood rushes back to my head 

My mind soon clears

I take a deep breath—

And hold it in.

Now each morning

After he leaves with a quiet kiss

I look upon the threaded jewels 

Across my throat and wrists

As they sparkle brightly back at me—

It's another kind of kink

When I smile at the mirror

And wonder what you'd think.

The Lesson

Not even his famous irreverence
Could ever erase
Every touch, every taste, every sleight of face
I remember everything.

The past is our bind
A promise long left behind;
This lesson in possession
Is Jealousy's curse,
But she is just a mother and

He is just the child 

Who hides behind her skirt.

Who will love him? 

He wanders the earth blind

Across silver-scarred skies

Through jet streams

And silent goodbyes.

Shadows in kind

With humility and grace,
We enter the void to uncover
The treasures that await.
From restless toil and hunger,
It is all we create.

My Lady Macbeth

A man is made mythic by a circular mind

The wheel that keeps time

And transforms him to memories,

Then to thoughts of what will be.

All that was, soon becomes

Raven-shaped shadows cutting holes from above 

Into the pallor of a white, sunless sky

A feather and stone balanced on either side

Here, we wait while the scales decide.

The mirrored clock, now a metronome

Waves curling and unfurling behind a throne

Where seated and adorned with a blindfold

I hold two swords across my breast,

Ready to face the form that once was flesh.

Once a Scorpion's sting became a welcome inoculation

Up to my neck in clouds

How kind you were to kneel and point down

To show me how what sprouts from below

Is the harvest of all we have sown.

Feet buried in wet earth is how I learned 

Even the gentlest of footsteps 

Will cause the smallest of creatures to stir.

From these slithering ones who thrive underground

A new wisdom was found: 

There are no secrets between souls

Time is space

Where love germinates

And from this fertile soil, grows.

Venus in Reverse

I heard the siren first, perfection out of tune.

Then all at once, in a big red truck

My angels showed up— 

Every one of them black and blue.

So I put on the cuffs I'd hung by the door 

(although they never asked me to)

And rode in the bed as we drove to the shore. 

On my knees I offered my best apologies

But my angels just laughed, and told me not to worry.

When I asked where we were going, they said,

“To witness the birth of a venus in reverse.”

The sun was setting when we arrived

Its golden blaze shone in my tired eyes

Seated and silent on the beach, my angels watched 

As my body breached the boundary

Between sky and the rippling horizon line

Suddenly, a splash burst from the sea:

Steady on her feet

After a decade long gestation,

There she stood naked

Soaked in froth and foam,

Singular in beauty, and on her own.

With a sun and moon one in the same 

Shining in hiding 

I contemplate my name.