Thursday, October 14, 2021

sweet tooth

Mostly it’s the ghosts that go 

unnoticed through the moonlit garden

barefoot over gravel and bramble,

running intangible fingertips through 

these pools of light and shape, rippling 

memory and make believe.

It’s never what or whom so much as

where I can put my paws on it,

how to hold it close enough to sink

my teeth in. I hold no claims,


I am without excuse. I indulge

appetite after appetite seeking 

what will please. The mockery in

your eyes and that Mona Lisa

smirk, the stories you do not share

as the words implore and exult, 

your life and limb a tossed off

archetype, prayer and priestess,

altar and goddess the way I tell it, 

me it seems every boy called to the yard.


Lab rat, born pigeon, or lucky bum

flushed or fleeced I am that

unruly beast, hungry ghost

amid the legions and the hosts,

famished and matchless at the feast.

Greasy grinned from the glistening

bones cracked for the marrow,

I hunger past the trappings of the clock,

attached reckless to the instant of impact 

this sweet tooth for all you are and aren’t.

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