CEMETERY

I bought an orange
and buried it.

It was winter.
You put on the same

overstuffed coat
that I was allergic to -

maybe you wanted to
bury me, under

the picket fence
that leaned like

driftwood. I remember
where we sat

under an apple tree
in late afternoons.

If I could breathe -
I would sit beneath it and

watch the orange
swallow

leftover apple cores.



10.12.2009 ~MLS~

PLEASE

I.

Lay me at the altar.

II.

Remove the strings,
the screws around my spine

and watch them fall

through the window

and into the river,

where the fish stare
and swallow, fill

their gills with

metal chips, washers

under their scales.

III.

Reflectors
on the water,

under the lily pads

and through the

moon water
reflection.

IV.

You will hear my prayer twice.


10.4.2009 ~MLS~

THE UNDERSIDE OF TREES

And she whispered, "Do you love me?"
As I watched her dangle in the tree -
she hung upside-down like a trapeze artist -
legs wide, crooked,
'cuffed hands and wrist cuffs
covering her belly button -

She reached for me.

I lit a candle and pushed her
out into the open.
It was going to rain.
Her tan body in the darkness,
I could see the whites
of her eyes,
two waning moons.

10.4.2009 ~MLS~