Embrace

You had all the words,

As if that weren’t enough

You squeezed me once

Without asking.

Now you have my breath, too.

Two parasites

No wonder

I’m scared

When I hate you all

The air is still

I mean stale

Your effusive fuss

Bores through my brow

Numbly you pick my pink

I mean grey

As a matter of fact

It’s great

Like to forget

My sponge is wet

And let this

Cerebrospinal juice

Drain as I probe

A new lobe

You would think

This would hurt

I mean prick

For God’s sake

An ice-pick!

Now my chest

Is the only one

Who hugs me

He knows best

But he cheated

With the brain drain

Secreted

His embrace is too tight

as

He hates me

I am the

Third wheel

On this nervous little tandem.

I bow and hunch and stoop

And curl and twist and stretch

And push and crunch and cry

And try to let them be

Together without me

These bastards are

A good team

I mean bad

I mean dream

Thank God

I am their host

They are only

My friends

 

Visit

I sip a hot cup of home

We are teetering on the edge

Degrees drop to death

Is there no crossing here?

I bury my head in mother’s bosom

And the world shakes

Like father’s hands

We’re caught in a storm of sadness

Sprayed by beige waves

We force grins and weep

So I throw myself today

The tea is cold anyway

Cough

Hip hip.
Inhale.
And.
Hold.
Blast! A mega breath explodes.
An intercostal ballistic mishap
A billion bronchioli burst my bust but
Rasping rises a treat…
Caramel catarrh creeps
Like a little kiss to tease this tongue.
Heart in heat and saliva slips smooth
Remedy past a fickle tickle with a trickle
Of fresh wind
That trap of battle
Enemy snakes
Tell tales that rattle.

Inversion

My soul is interred with silt
Casket crushed with this impotence
My mind effete with expression
Withered with this distance
My body is rotten with guilt
Decayed with innocence
My bones are weak with confession
And break without resistance

Kaleidescope

Kaleidescope of fear
Dropped in a hard place
Twisted to too hard
And broken
Colours
Stilled
Filled with new sharpness here
Empty, my new face
A membrane scarred
Unspoken
Colours
Killed
Pilled and still feeling queer
Rough rest round this race
Caught me off guard
Awoken
Colours
Spilled

Holy Grail

My candle hurls a shadow to the top
Of my Saharan ceiling. I marvel
At an anxious cerosus eclipse who
Quivers at the thought of her distant source

A brilliant tongue can disguise terror
But feeds on soul blood molten life bud our

Bodies burn and flesh drains dry claret boils
Residue blackens to ash solar death

Mother screams and father cries tears of pain
Children’s corpses already hung to dry.

For our good

We will not speak the word.

You who speak the word shall

be shunned and exiled for

having crossed into a

world without beauty or

brilliance.

Your dead truth means nothing

to me, or to others.

Those of us with restraint

will revel in our hope

that you resigned when you

opened it.

Hypocrisy’s King

Let me talk straight

What I want is to

Recreate illusions

Of “pure” masculinity

 

Using just words

I will convince you

Of this strange new idea:

These flat symbols hide nothing

 

Don’t read for form

It doesn’t matter

Or I’ll punch you, poofter

I am hypocrisy’s king

 

And my blunt sword

Grates as I stick you.

The great penetrator

Lacerates superficial.

Acaso una palabra 3

I’ll bet they’ll have told you it’s not going to kill you:

Missing him. You’ll forget all of that, and the pain

Will be numbed by other things; the wind and the rain

Will wash your windows and new worries will fill you.

 

And this throbbing thirst: this miserable drought that won’t

Lose you, will come to an end like that sweet thought

Of all the time that you gave me and how it ought

Not writhe and reach and scream as it does but you don’t.

 

Why then, did you come here if it all had to end?

And what was that love, if you never loved me?

Did you make me better to destroy me again?

 

That’s what you did: upped and left me so I must fend

For myself in this emptiness: You let me see

You so I let you in and you said goodbye then…

(Rubén Bonifaz Nuño)