The social lesions

I may take offense, may still your tongue

And your fickle ax willowing spastically

During unpredictable weather events.

As sure as the influence of big Cat.4’s

Can be felt in hair, almost like a weighted

Scent sinks itself deep into your lungs.

I believe your brain stopped bursting

When you asked kindly enough for it

to be so and so it was sealed proper.

I may watch you as you compose pictures

During the comic heat of the afternoon:

Twins, with braids and bloodied dresses.

A different rhythmic disease altogether,

Ripe, altogether issuing a personal brand

Of what we can call influence. And blue.

Ang babae, a coat, and priming people

With servants nursing in igneous folds

Feeding the social lesions, fueling distemper.

Those neighbors spreading naughty bits

Of all us about: what is left behind of you,

Behind you. Driving secures your safe

Destruction gets attributed to personal

Grease, on miscellaneous personal errors.

These galvanized nails of men and women:

For the host frost not eaten, for shining

Like fevered scat: all that jazz baby.

Desperate signatures, tempo shaking

The floor belly, tickling its ass. Head screws

Loosening from oaken boards, cracking

Themselves like possessed drumsticks.

Blackbirds singing. Black cardinal hums.

Sweat seeps from this percussive energy.

Ang lalaki: cancer on smooth heart muscles,

On subtle love bass and samples of distaste:

Stoned open, leaking your hours, my minutes

Into dark soil, social lesions crushed in service…

Source: Nine Mile Magazine, Fall 2019 Vol. 7, Nos. 1 & 2 (Nine Mile Books and Literary Magazine)