Calamity

your eyes are carnivorous
they speak thoughts into my head
empty me of my own
caress my skin with them

clip your talons, they’re much too long
perhaps clip your wings too
glue yourself to the pedestal you always place yourself upon
never fly again, little bird

the frogs scream a peculiar song
out of tune with their brethren
must have forgotten the lyrics
a conductor distracted, pulling petals from flowers

I meet your eyes at last
yours are kissed with sapphire and jade
will you dance with me?

Smoke and Coercion

Brick smokestacks in the distance 
billow smoke into open air, where it 
       becomes free and can roam 
       where it pleases, to mix with 

the clouds or sneak into lungs or 
further thicken the tension, darken 
       it, make it more dense. I’d allow 
       you to go explore this freshly 

cut-down forest but the decay of the 
underbrush might drag you under and 
      stuff your mouth with smoke, 
      poison you with it, cloud your 

mind with greed, coat you in cement. 
I hear that if you say words in the 
      correct order paired with an 
      exact pattern of tones and eye 

contact, you can convince someone of 
anything at all— perhaps even convince 
      them that the smoke is not sneaking 
      into and making nests in lungs.

Leave What Was Never Yours

Chimneys swept clean
Not a speck of ash lies
    amiss

And you continue moving
your tongue in rhythmic 
    innuendo 

Lend me your teeth
I would quite like to 
    feel something

Taste the bite in the wind
or feel the grinding tension
    of hate

Anything that is not mine
to use, to feel what is not
    mine to feel

Crass looks and full shelves
Books for learning or books for 
    lying?

Stack them into towers
until they lean and sway
    perhaps even fall

All empires do eventually
This is but an illusion
    of power

Touch your lips to tile so
clean you can see your
    reflection 

Take what you must and 
leave what was never yours
    to begin with