Abecedarian

A street vendor with fresh flowers stoops down for a penny and tastes the sidewalk.

Abecedarian

 

1.

Abecedarian

A filthy virgin on a mattress with memories and roses

Flush roses

Like roses in the teeth of dragons on soldiers’ patches

And she lights a slim but doesn’t inhale

Pitying herself

For being caught somewhere in a world

She loved and hates

But the nails in her wrists are plastic, edible, soft

Pinpricks

And still

In her snow globe on my night stand

Everything is colder

Then she’ll ever let me know-

 

2.

My head feels like a hive

But the bees are bullets

And the bullets are torn leggings

Lying on Persian rugs in the house of a fortunate son

And these thoughts?

I don’t know-

What do they remind you of?

Perhaps a lullaby

One you heard when you were young

And the world was round and everywhere and forever

Or perhaps it’s another mistranslation

Like a gunner you thought had tied a red rag above the bathroom window

For peace

Or a shell whispering to you in a language you wouldn’t know

All the secrets of my ocean

Now- forever-

Gone-

 

3.

You stole the ink from my pen again

And forces me to betray Her

The Sovereign

Who wears a skull without a face

And a sun without the trees-