Fossil

Let me unhinge you from peace,
peel you skin by skin from rest.
Do not read the poem on my tongue;
bloodstained carrion dragged
from the burnt earth.
Let me drag your feet through
the fossil of our absence,
of the distant sound
of our final distress call.
It is here, at this spot, drunk
deep with greed that our bones
became a deposit for single cell
organisms singed from war
to mine & exploit.
I became a half rotted tree
in a desert swept sea
& you became the dust
winging into the empty heaven.
We will kill all our gods for food
after we are done here
because we must taste manna,
the soft flesh of birds
of prey & lion pelt.
I mean we mowed the earth
from her green skin, fletched arrows
from her hair & yes, the sky
gave way to our hunger
to bend the dying stars
to our cause. Which shrine
did we not burn, which altar
did we not sacrifice, at the end?
Let me untether you from laughter.
See the cringing shapes
in the shadows of our dreams,
see the lovers entwined
in that long chain of embrace,
see how their knees bent
into the earth, their spine curved
into bows to pierce the moon.
Come from within that pseudo
reality, that fickle world of grass
& wind, sun kissed flowers
& tender fingers of dawn.
Let me show you the sour taste
of fear & agony, the terrible scream
locked in the rigor mortis
of the Earth's crust.

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