I will paint you anew can you take it you do not scare me
even uncountable piercings become ordinary
acceptable as you stare knowing you cannot touch me
I will ask you flat to forget and give me each point irretractably
microtonal oblivion come to smile collect remove oscillate
reconstruct now that you have succumbed to play out this residue
your hand held over my hidden years hushes my invisible bird

I bite my back to chew the anguish and crack my neck by tilting
yes with you I take new life now I embrace this time it throbs
you reveal thin sheets of my discomfort with wet and weighty pain
I mock ceiling fans in their one-direction prison as I inhale your lofty message
I answer all of your decisive intuitions with black beads of perching downtime
my intention is not to hush you but to form stained-glass alliance with your breastplate
I leave my signature by blood but not in blood for you to know my true name

11/26/2007

Author's Note: This is part four of collaboration.
For parts one and three, look at Kathleen's posting of Dark Bird in Flight.
italic stanzas are Kathleen's followed by mine, alternating throughout.

Posted on 11/26/2007
Copyright © 2024 David Garner