out 
 the carnivores
of my mother's womb
sharpened their wisdom
long before i was born

i need to smell their bright tracks
back
and call myself out
of my mother's womb * * * the pear fell away from its motherly branches wild seed of a fruitful era to come obsession toolbox i quit my nostrils delegate my underwear to the chimney-sweeper shed my eyelashes click the belly button to undress yet another underwater costume unfit exhale self-sacrifice is an outdated myth too long too used to hang on the dots of someone else's unfinished sentence * * * swift lizards running amok through the folds of the night foam through the horizontal frame of a borrowed sea gaze remind me: i have the map i need to follow the aftertaste of short explosions in the eyelids of long-departed ships body wit a blindfolded captain blames the unreliable ship that could bear just the treasures that are kept from its sight this dream keeps repeating and when the trousers of day unzip their messy cocktails i remember - my body’s the vessel i’m trying to blame
