Skin
i.
divine: the folds of skin in which
the soul’s couched. divan? daven-
ported there, some vessel, purposeless unless
voyaging, trips meaningless without
endlessness. seated in the chase, perhaps, or rooted
in activity. struck blood springing
to life, brews
rosen then ashen, hitting a stretched boundary of sorts,
blooming florid, liquid,
beneath which registers always the current
absence of power sufficient -- does it rest here?
tucked in?
or
in the lines that are unique and daily
shifting, painlessly or not, solitary to
me, recognizable to some - if they come
near enough, and often.
ii.
drawing on you
-r flesh for sustenance,
suspension in the act
of intervention
between brush
and skin. the current as much
without as within.
leaving an emblem, a mark,
organ-
ic enough to bleed with you,
fade with you
and sink
no further from the surface
of my design
as from the tip lining it on
Originally Published: Salt, volume 15, December 2002