When Came This Chill

when came this chill

came fevered ice through broken bonds.

to the scallops shoulders deep as glass

when grass of flame burned cold

the leaves of caffeine dropped as anchors chained to black-sea lungs;

when grew loves smoking hands in the cut-throat sea,

three more cigarettes to rape

to leave behind, unguarded, for the beggars throats to fight for;

casting bread on circus moonchild walking tightrope to the mast

as tides dine two-by-two,

monkeys broad as peashoots chase the salad in her eyes,

no less human than the alien feeding catfish to my thighs.

how sad the whale, now toothless, old as heathen,

sucks only metal wings of spacecraft manned by saxon crow.

when came this chill of smoke-screen,

came the hacking cough as real as heaven dumb;

speak whisper son of starling -mothers antlers sleep is weak-

we have sailed her heart through doorways

once as strong as ale, now limp as milk,

her dreams no more than broken skin of field rat, mice and men;

but still she breathes as strong as we are weak!

be red as candles' shaven head,

be Sappho's Rose of Pierian;

the second time we live, we die alone;

cast final net of walnut long forgotten;

the bitter seas where once no stranger swam,

swims Amphitrite, lonely, lost, unspoken;

her broken skin of field rat, mice and men: