The Gazing Ball

Queenly swans nudge eternity figs
Yellow rose fire

Lit by a ghost breath
I’ve eaten you someplace before

Terrapin venom
Sopping cream suits

Heart-shaped chops
Beautiful, rare novels

Bedlam peacocks
Nip limbs a-rosy

Curtsy
The apricot cross

Absence roughs up
My dead dog in the blood

Of babysitters
Watching trains go by

Faraway, the orphan trots
A pure gold cell

Icing the slaughtered
Lamb cake

Bridal meat dolls
Pulse over the breakfast razor

Little porcelain
Poppet, hand

The tureen of blood
Now to papa

I’m a gentleman
Dressed in pink paper

Ballooned assless chaps
Float the violet quarry

Twin parsley letters rattle
The gun case

O brute may I come in
O brute you may

The poets who offed themselves
Have formed a small country

Source: Poetry (May 2025)