VKA & GNGERALE

…In a bathroom stall at the wedding.

Teeth crushed against each other,

The puncture is a whisper.

Relief! Minds a broken blister.

Believe! (without bleeding on each other)

We're:

Talking through a magnifying glass,

Looking through a megaphone,

And counting the minutes till were home alone.

And I:

Man the crows nest nestled in your ship's stitched-sails,

Have a tongue in automation when not sheathed inside my cheek,

Am out of breath…

Shivers convert calories,

So breath into my chest,

No—cough into my lungs,

No—Sweat inside my eyelids,

Take a drink so full inside your mouth it spills…

I can't hear you over the sound of 500 pounds

Your soft hand combs me, the obedient dog.

I'm salivating at your bell, but–

distracted I watch petals of fire through the window.

And I'm sorry I can't hear you talking...

When the screams are ear muffs

–Sorry please know I want your ten digits on my temples

(Not this point of light pain inflating my head)

Oh are we pressed for time?

Let's make the slaughter quick then.

I just want to evaporate and reconstitute elsewhere

Sorry, sorry, bring your head to mine again!

I'll put on blinders to these–

Metal birds who forever feast and shit on the helpless

I guess we'll forget it since I'm deaf and...

I can't hear your requests over the sound of 500 pounds breaking bodies in two.

Twist

I find you impossibly kind.
And to me it seemed at first a ruse.
But now dissected, tested, tried–
I find to be the truth.

This voice can wrap me like wire.
Tie me as it's hostage.
But to be it's servant is my desire.

I awake unknowing where I am–
But who I am.
All the unfamiliar tones become my home.

The feel of a cotton-soft wrap-around-the-skin-on-skin blanketed embrace.
Speaking loudly as it feels.
Not all demands carved in the table.
Some worn away by another.
In a certain context by rubbing lead on paper
I rediscover.

We say ten hundred times,
"There are stars in your eyes."
And luckily both voices resound.
In a major key.
Twisting in harmony.