THE ROOM

When it entered the room

the window panes shook

It pounded into the room

in dancing plumes

and firework cracker teeth

singing madly

It poured into the room

soaking tea in a clay pot

changing its strength and color

like sunset soaked earth

It ripped into the room

with ambulance siren screams

clawing and tearing

breaking apart

It waltzed into the room

pausing after those three beats

kicking up its heels

spinning in tuxedoed orbits

It slid into the room

on swaying maiden honey hips

and slightly parted lips

with sweet languid longing

and tender satisfaction

It entered the room with pets

and gardens

and barbeque sauce

and automatic sprinkler systems

filling the room

with August aroma

It pulled its way into the room

sucking

lost inside itself

In needing out

desperately inseparably polarized

It seeped into the room

It spilled over the top

ran the down the sides

leaked through the cracks

and soaked through to the bottom

It tickled the room

digging in between each rib

with familiar fingers

and punch-lined anecdotes

with neck-kissed giggles

and knock-knock jokes

It exploded into the room

threatening to blow

the whole thing wide open

It ripped trees out of the ground

and sent chards across the sky

Tides flapped against shores

like violent flags

It stopped in the room

It emptied the walls

and scraped the floor and ceiling clean

It voided itself out

and canceled all reservations

until it was no more

It chewed its way into the room

It bit the skin

sucked all the seeds out

and swallowed the pulp

while the sweet nectar

trickled down its grinning chin

It walked into the room

sat down in a metal folding chair

opened a black case

and lifted the instrument

out of its purple velvet

It screwed together each part

covered the holes

licked its lips

and blew

It was forced into the room

drug in by one arm

With dug-in heels

it fought for the door

it resisted but weakened and crumpled

taken by its opponent

It dropped into the room

free-falling on its way down

gravity pulling at it

driving it faster and faster

towards inevitable impact

It lit the room

on wild fire

Flames rose

throwing up sparks

spitting and crackling

igniting the other and spreading

It crowded into the room

cleared its throat

and elbowed its way in

it shuffled through the multitude

smelling sweat and body heat

it huddled, surrounded

It entered the room

and the room centered it

spun it like clay on a wheel

The room gathered and connected it

wove it together and knotted it

joined and harmonized it

communicated with it

understood and adhered to it

And when it was altogether and whole

it was once and for all

the room

LAST RITES

Do you remember when

you christened me?

You, with your dead Jesus

who wouldn’t let you live

Your knife blades

carved out my flesh

into a first-blooming flower

The petals

pink as salmon swimming upstream

to their delicious execution

You said you had been drug in

As for me, I was escorted

A tuxedoed chauffeur driving me

into a car accident

Awestruck by the joyride

I sucked in the scenery

the red sky licking my wounds

before they broke open at the scene

Do you remember how wet

was my baptism?

It drowned me

Your exquisite hands

pulled me below

and jerked my head back up by my hair

As I coughed and sputtered

you held me like a soul mate

and answered with a kiss

like communion on my tongue

In the morning

we held each berry

before sinking our teeth in

With stained lips

we savored them

knowing their whole lives

were about our purple mouths

We laughed

until all our teeth fell out

our tongues lost

without their white walls

fanged inner-city billboards

with graffiti-sprayed cries

of lost immigrants

in a foreign land that promised

milk and honey

Sugary opiates

that sweetly sucked

the bone marrow out

Do you remember how you opened me?

spreading me wide

like a mango ripped open

its nectar crying out over its skin

or like steel clamps pulling my chest apart

for open-heart surgery

Do you remember how you anointed me?

your lips

and my lips

and all that spilled out of them

the words and songs and saliva

painted a story all over our bodies

it had a plot but no context

it was a first novel

an immature infant

suckling the milk out

of breasts heavy

with the weight of woman

Woman with the foreign tongue

singing a lullaby

to a death squad

You would save me with my own sins

like Sunday lovers hiding in a confessional

hailing to what we knew was most divine

answered by just another crucifixion

Your long languid fingers

sliding through the holes in my hands

Do you remember how exalted

was our resurrection

after I gave birth to your death?

Like red plastic roses on a tombstone

you decorated my despair

Your trembling hands pulled

back the sheets of my sickbed

you reached through the middle part

and laid me back

burying your black head

in my between

and delivered me

Do you remember my unction?

With the laying on of your hands

you typed out our sentences

I swallowed your seeds

choking back the vomit

that their roots refused to release

Like a terminal patient

I gave myself to your cancer

I closed my eyes

as the winter snow quietly fell

and listened

for the oncoming deafening silence

At last you cleared your throat

and slowly fingered your new pages

Your lips finally parted

and as my heartbeat slowed

you read

me

my last rites