Sunday, August 21, 2011

Walking Web

I am caught          like a fly            in a web
though I am moving and have broken it
From twigs         and branches          that string it
blue, cold, skyward and tether its ends to the hot center
I am carrying          it with me         over shoulders
and neck like a noose or long pendant, I’ll wear it forever
Sometimes          it glistens          on my skin
sometimes I scratch and pull at infinite fragments
Each bit falls         away, nothing          visible remains
but still I am traced by silk and bound by its feeling on my skin
Light, down         to nearly nothing          you can’t see
that it’s there in my hair or on my face, under finger nails.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Degenerate


Broken by a fall out of bed
the pain didn’t wake me but the noise
lack of crack, a slow rumble
flipped me sideways like thunder
hitting my eardrums from inside
and hammering dully on my brain
as with elbows that don’t relent
self-defensive and close to the danger
the pain became the noise
filled with fragments of femur
my leg was red and liquid fire
They’d told me the bones would start breaking
that red and white would disintegrate
like sands from different deserts
and yes those sands were rubbing and mixing
and creating a frenzied whir
humming electric as I lay on the planks
later my collarbone in the dressing room
and all the toes while sitting perfectly still
my biggest bone had broken
now I would wait for help
and then wait for breaking