Cora

Cora in pink lipstick pouting in wet lips
lace in her veins pouring poetry like maw-maw's porridge
viscous stanzas and hirsute rhyming sets
Cora in bed swimming upstream w. starving salmon
coral-colored leviathan submarines crawling through the current
dogged
   from fucking and starving for rest

Cora from the crooked forest edge calling my name
mouthing the twisted syllables of my mother's opening curse
a cat's cold wind pawing on the surface of the pond
full moon dancing desperately to see its own smile
Cora in slippers sneaking through the shadows
so even mice
   could not be kept from crowing in their sleep

Her bosom the orbs forbidden, fruit of Man's tortured soul
her footprints in morning patchwork through pine and dew splash
her soft white belly the hot bellows where laughter is born
husk rhetoric in cotton and golden honey whiskey
Cora
   in bloom.

TA