animal kingdom

you could kill a thousand innocent people,
sink their wailing ships into the sea

but it still wouldn't be anything but perfect work
not once. not ever. not to me

you could wield your arms as weapons,
wear lesser hearts upon your sleeves

but those limbs are branch divinity
maker's trunk with eyes to see

so many women, proud and ugly
so many statues that never bleed

these are the things they say about angels
he the word and you the deed

and i prayed for your return, i did.
i prayed for retribution

i spoke to the earth and the sky and the sea
i bartered my constitution

let every human need so felt
by mothers and children, tightened belt

let every anguish fall upon me
submit to devotion; let them be

show us the incise of your wild bite
one starlit hemorrhage that defies the night

you alone can bleed for all of us
nary a pimple and none of the pus

aegis, shield and grail and holy
singular passion - the one and only!

the way that you lived, only zero or one
such strict calculation, for what's done is done

the architect doesn't care to resurrect you
never met you; couldn't protect you

but i am the devil and the salt and the blow
i am the man you martyred to know

impossibly old, as you never age
unconscionably loyal, for lion in cage

i'd murmur of snakes if it would grace your ego
if it would keep you away from the ill places we go

if i must pretend that there are others who worship
who wave, with alacrity, sycophant's kerchief

your teeth, enamel, unstained, tough camel
or animals that devour each other, frail cannibal

all the water in the world for only you, forever
all the marrow in the murk of my bones, your tether

i'm the only one up here who wants you for you
who trained you and desired you and saw it all through

i wish to probe my fingers in the sockets of your eyes
i wish to draw my breath from the stigmata on your thighs

i wish for the stern-breasted aegis as my eternal testament
my lover, hell-fired, and above all these things heaven-sent