More Than Flesh

We have loved with the hearts of cowards,
tufting our ‘manes’ in hypertension melodies
at one another,
bearing our teeth, 
growling without the seismic tap-dancing of vocal cords,
bearing our teeth,
grinning without the royal blue blanket of faux silence coveting our learned insecurities"
You know, you know, you know, we were, we were made like this.
I know, I know, I know, we were, we were all we knew how to be.

Let us sharpen our bones into ballpoint ends,
look our fear in the eyes
and pluck two off-white feathers from his torso,
to crown our calcium quills with!
Our veins blue and bursting, becoming Yellowstone geysers of ink before our glassy eyes:
We couldn’t choose them, the words just came.
You know, you know, you know, we’d be, we’d be nightingales before nightfall.
I know, I know, I know, we would, we would, sing in voices never heard prior.

We have loved with the hearts of cowards,
strewing Christmas-wrapped carcasses across one another’s streams of consciousness, 
adorning our claws with clock hands of twine,
raveled in a gothic candy-caned fashion;
Oh dear, you’re so, you’re so, so sweet my dear,
Oh dear, you’re so, you’re so, so disarming my dear--
let us quest for flesh
and desire more
(than flesh.)

We have metamorphosed, we have evolved, we have changed shapes with each spilled dropletofprose,
(We couldn’t choose them, the words just came.)
There were pieces of Darwin and Skinner and Jean-Jacques Rousseau quilted along our nerve endings,
splitting them,
splintering them:
It was the never-ending fight of wood and flame
again
and again
and again.
You know, you know, you know, we are, we are compass roses attempting to grow intertwined with Birch branches.
I know, I know, I know, we are, we are contradictions within ourselves.

Let us quest for flesh!
and desire more!
(than flesh!)
Let us spill ourselves into frivolity and chivalry;
let us be both the stick and the spark!
Let us, let us, let us,
let us be what we were promised;
in asbestos speckles of compromise and contortionism.

Are you one of us or one of them?
Coward or carcass?
Will you, will you, will you join our quest for flesh?
Or are you, are you, are you,
nothing more 
than just 
that?

Author's Note

unfinished

Reviews

[PianoandPage]

"Let us sharpen our bones into ballpoint ends" loved this line.

this poem had a good energy, it gave a sense of surging forward and of your intent to sweep us up with you.

you definitely have a love of language and you vocalize your vocabulary beautifully but be careful not to force it past the point where it creates a beautiful image into the sharp abstract that few will tread with you.

this poem is about questing and i felt the call. good job.

[Tkess]

I've noticed, at least with the poems that I have read of yours, that you feel that they are unfinished or not complete. However, I assure you that they are, at least the ones I have read, well crafted and sublime. You have a way of beating around the bush and saying things that, although not directly, give the reader that sense of what you are feeling. I have enjoyed the writes that i have read of yours. Nice job.