Your Words

Part I

Your words
flog me
my skin weeps
with blood
layer by layer
i peel off
parts of myself
no longer useful
not to be denied,
i have gone now
and all you have left
is your solipsistic mind,
twisted
like mangrove roots
in wastefields
littered with angel ashes,
there are chasms
between us now
you have raped my
soul for the last time,
Beloved enemy mine
you have forgotten
what love feels like
but i promise you this,
once you have tasted
my blood
you'll never be able
to let me go,

your flesh will crawl
back to me.

Part 2

In India the cobra
stands king,
tall as any man
but ask the
charmer
about the rope trick
and how often
he has mistaken
the stick

there are no serpents
in Ireland
St. Patrick came
home one day
now all their
skins are shed
and only
fields of shamrocks
grow
greener than the green
in jealous eyes,
greener than the green
in a verdant heart

there are more deadly
serpents in Australia
than anywhere on earth
and this is where
the dreamers live.

3.

some day when snow-capped
mountains have melted
to form a pearl
and every sea and ocean
returns
to flare in the oblong sun
when the lotus
path of fragrant memory
leaves a scent
of who we were
we'll love again
as if there were no end,
no beginning to steal away
our hungry heart
with this pound of flesh.