Kath - 9.18.12
bite back
the ink between your teeth, streaming
brick crust around the corners
salve and bandage, Hermes attend
mauve eyes, split lip, chipped tooth.
fight back the tears, speak
as Tiresias can, do no wrong you
are the Sappho's of this world, the dreamers, the Daedalus, the stars. in space
they can see your eyes shine worlds beyond dreaming
Kleio comes to you soft as sheets.
you are the Orpheus, broke from song
to coax tears before Hades, Persephone weeps
you are Atlanta, swift of foot, speeding onwards
you leap beyond their scorn
speak not of words, of sticks,
of stones torn long from gr
Kath 9.24.12
we rolled in fields burnt brown by cold, so strong
my skin papered with its stinging
howl eyes narrow, tawny hair shivers
bite chapped parchment shaking in leather.
you are a creature
of moments, of sunshine in winter, bright gold
the way the wind glints frozen. your skin
a twisting furnace of heat, spring forward
and this is Us; the bloodless and the wolf, stealing heat you spill
the shared hush of laughter and crunch predators
stalking the sheeple, we speak to the edge
where adrenalin rush meets madness.
in autumn,
birds fall from blackbone branches like leaves leaving
Kath 6.18.12
tell me
I am not a pet to you, prince
ripe Apollo golden in the sun, you pet
your hands in my hair, long streams, green ribbon
low flash of dark moss against the careful clip, you are
slinking around the edges of the idea
mermish
the creature from the deep.
but I am not a pet, no
elfine royal to tell me how to live
or die, I
am a force, flash fish
scales bright and silver like the knives
they hang in Williams-Sonoma
I will cut you with these teeth, I smile so wide
you flinch from purpose, you
are an empty threat of power,
the flat bottom box Pandora lied
there is no hope for us
Kath 6.18.12
the grapevine smells like summer
trussed like a Beltane boar
saccharine and laden
ripe on spry brown bough
bright green burst cold in your mouth,
the sun filters through leaves spread wide as palms
five fingered lacing overhead
fingers twine together,
warmth blooming between soft-padded flesh, lay
in the careful hammock of skin against skin, pressed
into wrought metal and careful crinkle linen, trail
into the house, ripe with laughter,
plied with fruit and careful smiles, your mouth
wide as the sky, bright and blue,
sweet as rain, I want
to keep you here forever, stolen light,
Persephone golden, sun-wh
Kath 4.14.12
he comes home with earth and vitriol
spilling bloodied between his teeth, soft gasp
of courage, anger, fear
the quiet of the victim and
he will not speak, explain, condemn,
just sit and take her questing silence
the gentle queries of mother's hands
running reverent over bruises.
she will tuck the hair
behind his ears, press soft
kisses to seeping eyelids,
sloping purpled nape and proud vertebrae
aching and coloured in battle
and she will tell him of Atlas, who holds the world
on shoulders broader than his fathers, how
Michael told Adam knowledge could
create paradise beyond God's Eden, and
tha
Kath 4.14.12
we are born small
trembling creatures, arms strewn
out, mouths open wide with grief and lost
the body heat, the warmth
of connection, abstraction, the soft
th-thump of mother's heart, the
gentle hum of blood
and we are fragile, in each miracle glory
of birth and wet and cells' collision
we are one with the womb when we first exist
and we spend our lives searching, hunting, learning
the way that bodies fit together, the way
life is conceived, to learn of soft lines
and gentle sighs
and a moan caught in mouths, and
just think, the entirety
of a mind is three pounds
you can press fingers i