Angel/Gargoyle
One of us, darling,
is disembodied:
the other hoists lime-
stone wings above the graveyard
and clings and clings
I live by compression:
already I bear the weight
of two - not just
my own frank flesh
but the death
I gave birth to
Didn’t I think
I had seen grace,
didn’t I let you go
with the stargazers,
in the name of freedom
loosed you to the high
incommensurable light?
All spirit now, you ice
the air eternally
with your white ash,
while I am a crude
joke of heaven - snout,
claws, granite belly
scaled like an armadillo
Do you circle me,
aimless, inaudible, concealing
your frequency?
I live in the noise
of idiot anthems,
in the dark below the self
where the faithful
cross their fingers
Who has stopped dead
and who gone forward,
now time neither shines
nor flows between us?
Dreams brief as photos
keep their counsel,
go to the fire like heretics,
holding their tongues,
and nothing answers
me: the bright clouds
write no letters, leave
no talismans between my thighs
Listen to me darling: last night
on my grotesque pillow
I made love to you
like a gargoyle, like an angel
Page(s) 48-49
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