she looked out the window
(as she polished a platter)
at the assassin asleep
on the concrete.

she smiled because he was
drugged with a violent pleasure.
an image created for her.
a glimmer of
fear,
and slithery pain
an electric switchblade pointed into her heart.

squirmy squishy sounds:
she took those feelings for her mind.
a pale television set
love out of focus
test pattern drool.

16 years before
vaguely remembered:
the morning they bathed
together in the
iron claw foot tub –
caressed atomic hair
with sighs so liquid.
afterwards he had to leave.

she looked in the water
for the remnants of a beast:
fur, saliva, blood, rabies all were dancing,
all were accounted for:
gentle and quiet he
lay on the pavement
enjoying the licks of the manhattan snow
a quiet shelter for a thought barrier.

her eyes yellow
with pupils black
spit cyanide
down below
his dreams were sliced
and reverberated in crimson.
he walked up the stairs
he knocked on the door
she let him in for
a liquid moon’s slam:
a slippery time zone for
a change for
a reverb.

she cringed at his touch
dropped her veils to the ground
regretting that she was repeating
a past long forgotten –
atomic hair

(spit
black latexm mucous.
screaming
torn split

and vinyl dreams.

dripping moisture
down her long legs
her heels and her hooves

and the leather doors
her fingernails scratching

sighing
a reflex
not touched for so long. never.
again.)

she welcomed him inside
boiling tears swirled out of time
merged
unmerged
with

the sounds and the fangs
fluorescent lights collapsed
then a breath separation
a calliope played
a scalpel for vivisection
gleefully a sacrifice

9 years later:
the shelf held the platter
(a small part of an extensive collection)
a former partner shrouded in gore
a head shocked with lust
eyes returned her gaze blankly

she parted his lips
her tongue traced his teeth
(a tune – twisted fractured)
her blood – acid taste
(that’s what remained).

they washed her dreams away

she paused and whispered
to a crack in the wall
as she sewed his lips tight

the seeds of his image
did a slow dance inside her
a womb out of balance
as she removed her skin – just a covering.

the bride cries often
pale and bleeding
hiding in the shadows
from her maker and her partner.

fractured
eyes

fractured
smiles

final words said
zero to go.

walk.

exhaustion:
heat &
pain sleeping.

we’ll wave and
they’ll wave goodbye

we’ll watch and
they’ll disappear

mental blood-watch
time to go

often watching the eyes
to come back at a later time.

flat clouds crawl across the night.
slow. away. then run quickly.
shadows fast.

moon erases shadows

and
no one here
to say
goodbye.

a case of love
in the atom age

By Peter Marra

www.angelferox.com