i presented
my feminine side
with flowers

she cut the stems
and placed them gently
down my throat

and these tu lips
might soon eclipse
your brightest hopes

***

she had nothing
but time on her hands:
silver rings, turquoise stones
and purple nails

i rubbed my thumb
across her palm:
a featherbed
where slept a psalm

yea, though i walk
i used to fly
and now we dance

i watched
my toenails blacken
and walked a deadened trance

until she woke me
with the knife edge
of her glance

i have the scars to prove
the clock strikes
with her hands

***

i have seen the truth
many times
but for the first time
she saw me

i wore suspenders
for the judgment
in my pants

***

i laced my shoes with sorrow
and walked a weary road
dead end streets
don't come undone
with double knots

wing tipped shoes
that walk on air
through vacant lots

***

she kept her deck
beneath her pillow
and had promised
me a reading

she stuck a bookmark
in my heart
and walked away

it was autumn then

the leaves
suddenly flames
the sidewalk
burning cinders

i walked the streets
as if the sun
had called me boy
mad at the world
on aging feet

shuffling
her cards

shuffling
my feet

head
to the sky
blue

the clouds
her cards

the clouds:
her cards

shuffling
the skies

a storm passes
new clouds appear:
the chariot
the priestess

the moon
in broad daylight:
an omen

***

love is an unbridled horse
with one wing out-stretched
the other tucked and folded
on the right side

the horse galloping
towards a cliff
knowingly
panting just enough
for you to think
he's laughing

he?
love is male?

love is a dumb horse
with silver streaks
and a sometimes penis

a sometimes penis?

on thursdays
the rest of the week
she grazes
and paints her hooves
with red mud
making tracks

through the fields
which disappear
soon after they appear