Your head moves under hot lights
thrashing
a passion as you open your mouth wide
roar your words
small teeth, thin lips
skin colored by strobes
I want your impulse
your brave furious eyes
your mad flung acrobats anger
it’s the addiction to throwing aside
caution
striking out like match on ink
permanently marking your stride in heat
I watched you take a whole roomful
swallow them whole with your flame-thrower energy
spitting them into stars and tilting laughing
as they adored you and didn’t know why
your mercury vapor left them reeling
clasping my hand in the car with headlights off
driving blind down blurred country roads
inside me with urgency born of
thunder and trees struck silver
firing in strange shapes of want
it felt like flying, I grabbed a tuft of you
spun like a catherine wheel in your orbit
time was fast and everyone watched as
we climbed buildings in our wonderlust
they’re crazy, they’re so in love
they’ll burn out, they’ll extinquish each other
we never did
not until the key stuck, didn’t turn around anymore
rusted and tired of pushing wooden horses
tired in their paint and festoon
oh I would have made them well again
as I did you
just for one more shivering impulse
riding your coat tails as you took in
the capture of your swell
kissing me beneath table tops
our faces glittering from thrown aside masks
hands reaching, climbing up skin
dance of thundering hearts clamoring to be
still
as you lay now, white out, no sound
I dance contorting to cause a smile
there is none
only a wick, half used, half submerged
in waxen reproduction of what was once real
give her back!
give her back!
I yell at rooms without inhabitants
tables missing their chairs
windows containing no view
your fingers trembling in mine
if I could have
I would have
made us one
save this image; a kiss lasting past quitting time
you pull away and reach in again
no ending, just softness
a song we live inside
calling us home
there we go
hand in hand
through the vapor
vanishing