it took civil wars to keep us apart
at the hips,



one wing will not soar without the other undercover lover
his shell is softening flutter-fading
pastel tones the richness of our skins that once made us cocoons of shirts
are no longer primary enough to make us enemies
on the king’s court or the scarlet letter field is stained with
bedroom walls.

tell the queen i miss her dearly
decking the halls with her pearly-teething don’t feed the bear traps
which i gladly stepped into out of hope-starving
styrofoam floats quietly futuristic family portraits
cautious there are so many lightning-infused pictures of us
traveling down the wet river together.

we never swallowed enough setting sun dials to tell our empty throats to notify
the crystal castles bell choir who to wedding ring first
when it felt like no one was home housed
alone adrift a sea and you
i didn’t think it’d outlast the petaled flowered furnitured
the humming recliners in my chest and spine and living room
go tick and tock and

ache to go back.

03/04/2012

Author's Note: the hyena dream, digesting bone & singing pretty lullabies

Posted on 03/04/2012
Copyright © 2024 Steven Kenworthy