Our private life in bone,
covered in keratin and
camouflage feather

the prickly pear
the sudden violent storm

the Saint Vitus dance

Chemical tapestry
gathering dust

a labyrinth of
3 am calls,
medicine in neat white tubes,
psoriasis under favorite t,
earthworms split in two,
burning witch hymn, drawn blinds,
granite on granite,
do wrong for a living
live in the dark

spider-bite under rolled up pant leg
black sweatshirt flecked with paint

You wish you were King Diamond

Long hair, long gun

Exult in funeral song
Self-destruct in
teenage bedroom
Flightless cormorant
slick ebony wings under
the sheets