I’ve got the children to tend The clothes to mend The floor to mop The food to shop Then the chicken to fry

I keep on dying again. Veins collapse, opening like the Small fists of sleeping Children. Memory of old tombs,

When I think about myself, I almost laugh myself to death, My life has been one great big jok… A dance that’s walked A song that’s spoke,

Lying, thinking Last night How to find my soul a home Where water is not thirsty And bread loaf is not stone

We wear the mask that grins and li… It shades our cheeks and hides our… This debt we pay to human guile With torn and bleeding hearts… We smile and mouth the myriad subt…

A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since depart… Marked the mastodon, The dinosaur, who left dried token… Of their sojourn here

When love is a shimmering curtain Before a door of chance That leads to a world in question Wherein the macabrous dance Of bones that rattle in silence

Your smile, delicate rumor of peace. Deafening revolutions nestle in th… cleavage of your breasts

When I was young, I used to Watch behind the curtains As men walked up and down the stre… Young men sharp as mustard. See them. Men are always

I note the obvious differences in the human family. Some of us are serious, some thrive on comedy. Some declare their lives are lived

You drink a bitter draught. I sip the tears your eyes fight to… A cup of lees, of henbane steeped… Your breast is hot, Your anger black and cold,

We were entwined in red rings Of blood and loneliness before The first snows fell Before muddy rivers seeded clouds Above a virgin forest, and

My man is Black Golden Amber Cha… Warm mouths of Brandy Fine Cautious sunlight on a patterned r… Coughing laughter, rocked on a whi… Graceful turns on woolen stilts S…