Red hands rummage
your train-cased thoughts
electrocutions, pill drawers, and pantyhose
until I pull you to sad pieces
regret
carving up your home-sewn dress
cigarette burns on final drafts
severing blond starlet hair
that falls like brass
curls cut
from mother’s Christmas angel, when
I learned
some things cannot grow back
only up
I grew
to watch you
paint your cottage
with raw meat
each board a rib of Adam
you’d never steal
Housewives winked from oven
windows
Your ego poured in bourbon
broke glass
crushed milk and ribbons
ice buckets and bramble bread
I try to meet you
on canvas or courtyard
strike
through
what always was
in the red
the red
the bone
the glue
that stuck the wings
from the father’s bees that kept you
brushed thick
ash-ink and honey
painting mirrors
until the piss was shook
from every word
The perfect edge
of scissors
that never cut
the sting
