The Fourth Assault of the Finite
On the shore of the city I found a reason to leave
My breath in the soil charred by feet and stamping heels.
Where two tar-blacked legs interlocked, I knelt to scratch
The gum from my own grey, patent sole, wrenching
The tumor clear like one who desperately claws at an
Exposed and draining wound--something black and fungal.
Blinded or hollowed to the weather (which lathered each pole with
Crawling finery before sealing each limb in a silver casket)
I squatted into the pavement where every blood-drop's
Heat surged into cold clay--expended, wrung, and snuffed of voice.
My two hands clamped over one taught denim knee,
Like a mother receiving her son's first grasp—one desperate,
One unknowing, both unused to the sensation, and neither
Purely selfless in the intercourse. They clung together over the prickling shin,
Binding my fleshy thigh to its corresponding shoulder where a heartbeat passed
It's violent chatter from one organ to another, speaking without
Sense, orating to a deaf-mute with a spider's eyes and a
Cobra-face, incensed by the wealthier muscle's salivating
Life, a geyser of power that drained from its four slapping mouths
Into each vacant artery, vein and capillary, engorging my
Tongue and fingers with an ability that I would never
Understand or appreciate or want.
Instead, I let the hands intercourse lovelessly and collapse
--chapped and chaffed--
And alone, while I stood to lumber to the pulseless parking lot
--where I thought--
My cold-browed vehicle might remain with dead eyes frosted shut.
They jogged in time beside my hips and seemed to glance at
One another but without recognition, only swaying decadently
Like two dancers in a smoke-infected cabaret, yearning for
Eye-contact in the smoldering crowd, where pupils spilled
Down their legs and through their hair and around their spinning,
Shining eyes--which were of no one's concern or obligation.
Each bundle of digits extended from its own arm, suckling
On the blood that tightened each knotted wrist,
Bobbing listlessly on either side of a rocky pelvis,
Pretending to be carrying breath within,
But secretly thirsting to plant
Breath without.
