Wax Statue

She is never sure what the others see

Beyond lacquered lashes and ruby mouth

Circling the looking-glass

That leads to her twisted soul

Tied up in knotted ribbons

Sampson’s hair wrapped round her heart

Woven thread by thread

More decoration to soothe her flushed flace

Withered from tragedy and despair

Reborn through youth and beauty

I am a harlot beyond the bible’s reckoning

Collecting gems of sideways glances

Given freely yet stolen by my avarice

From willing grateful victims

Art collectors

Unaware their gaze is my only muse

Hold still as an ancient petroglyph

You might unkink that curled hair

Or snap apart that smile

Used to put strangers at ease

Cochineal lips and fringed eyes

Like a painted bisque doll
You are a perfect mannequin in the mirror
Made opaque from a lifetime of reflection


August 13th, 11:44 pm

Untitled

Do you know how I’d like to die?

I’d like to drown in the big blue sea,

Tossed on storm-beaten frothy waves.

My body will sink down into the still and dark

Where monsters can eat the flesh-

Deep as a whale’s carcass.

The frozen northern ocean could preserve me -

An ice cold cocktail of potent spirits

To numb my mind and catalyze

Fear’s release, hardening every vein

And every fluid-filled cell.

May the current take away the bones-

Hide them from land-locked funeral procession.

I’ll lie under silt and stone and shadows

So that nobody views the decay

Of my pale and bloated soul.

Friday, August 12th, 3:25 pm