december legs


Lace-edged panties
Fit just right
And we string gaudy lights along the Douglas fir
Artificially glowing
And aged,
Your legs tight for miles and your laugh like bells while
Through wine-stained teeth we exchange ghosts.
Our stockings rub soft beneath the covers
And against one another
We lay the past down
Like men beneath the bounce of breasts,
You, gasping mouth hot against
And I, always searching
Beyond the dawn
The birds cease chirping,
Some unspeakable heat that rises in winter
Claims each quick breath as its own
You convulse beneath
Skin slick and blood of rose oil
Shaking so thickly through
Doll hands and dark eyes like glass,
Your chaste highlands curve wild
Rounded nipples and such limbs,
Unshaven still smooth
And soaking
Upon the stretch of coarse quilt and
Under torn Japanese lanterns.
The tamales grow cold in the fridge and
The dogs lie uneasily at our feet,
Tuned and unblinking
Toward the muffled cries.

blue of my blood.



Rojo
Flows more freely,
Whipping through its neon tunnels like the
Burgundy sugar
of expensive Mexican cokes
in disguise.
The women here, such protruding bellies and
Red eyes from ancient dust,
The crimson of allegorical whims
and a culture refined by
Despair, at best
Matching her side-swept hat
French, maybe with cigarettes or
a vest.
Too young for this.
Spoken moments that dissipate
into the skirts swirling high, bunching
into wind-knees
Perhaps there is still baby fat to lose.
And I may claim
The sway of skeleton earrings and
Bloody noses,
yet they are stains of an
Impoverishment
that is not quite my own.
The lights burn hard here,
rugged and powerfully enticing
So I will lose myself again and again,
the oldest city in Texas
a lot like him
Sweet to the touch and
Soft—
to the tongue.
A relic to savor
Lingering before the swallow.
In this same abyss such beloved memories
Devour and cherish me
Whole
Our feet will trample the recognizance
of our own
Such aches and flashes, they reside
in rows on command
And these years we've grown
Urban city sprawl
Like the McDonald's done in columns
and red brick walls
Next to the 5 and Dime near Market Street
where Daddy took me and Sister for
a quick round of treats
We stood on the hotel balcony
and threw jellybeans down
upon passerby,
Littering the gutters with our laughter.