before.

don't close your eyes when you come for me.
oh, i dare. fuck me where you find me,
red dress, scratched heels, a music box singing for ghost kings
the woman you weren't meant to see

jezebel, delilah, lilith, scylla, circe, morgan, perhaps
somebody loved them, perhaps somebody
counted their lashes and touched their throats,

crooked and bent, crooked and bent
telephone eyes
air wearing the putrid syrup of shit around his shoulders
the way i give you my flesh
the way i give you my bones

i will use you to conquer kingdoms
i will graze your skull and bring down castles
i will give birth to your children alone beside the water
i will flee from you and find myself a monster
i will turn men into pigs
i will hoard lovers yet live only for you

leave me where you find me, leave
my body glimmering on the open rocks
laughable and tragic
roads will wind over me, traffic lights
will blink absently, the taste of
smoke sad and demure, leave the sky to
carry on, leave the planes to lift off and the angels to land and the people to
wander
leave the earth to turn and leave the sun to
burn, leave the weathered holes in your
feet to lick the carpet
when you wake every morning to leave the house

do not forget i am burning beneath you,
do not forget i

i stand tall
scooped out from the inside
you are batwinged and breaking
a footstep in the snow,
slow.

frothing, you turn into the white of waves
looming and sliding
an echo of whales
deep inside the crux of you