just a drop to wet my mouth, please
i feel my lips-and-tongue cracking
i have no right to ask you anything
but i am thirsty
so i'll do my best to repay your favors
and despite my thirst
try to scrape (myself from you)
restore the almost-innocent,
just-slightly-tarnished you
that dim-shone before
dry-mouthed and teething
i dammed you (and damned you)
in the hopes of fertile fields replanting

(it seems i never managed
to inherit mother's green thumb
-instead-
i became pesticide and defoliant
starving to starve
all i labeled pests)

i would like to plant another lie
and watch it blossom and bear fruit
spit seeds that taste
bitter(i am what you made me)sweet
but i don't think you'd fall
for my venus-fly-trickery
anymore

i'll ask one more time
just one drop please,
then i'll leave
i know i have no right to ask you
but i am thirsty
just as you were
once

10/28/2002

Author's Note: Written some time after reading tissi’s ‘lesser charm(ed) - cleanscraped.’ Thank you, dragonsister.

Posted on 10/28/2002
Copyright © 2024 Richard Paez