M I C H A E L  M I L L E R

Bones

from The Joyful Dark

1.

On the green steel of its legs

The praying mantis, the female,

Rises above the male

After he has driven into her

And they have joined for a moment,

Then bites off his head.

2.

Not love, but lust only

Draws us into the grass

Where your muscular legs

Lock me into a vise

As I imagine snapping your neck

And cradling your head

While I begin to eat slowly.

3.

I devour you to become you,

To breathe in your marrow

And flow through your blood

Until the rot clinging to my body

Falls away like an old scab

And I feast on the purity of bones.

4.

On the long yellow grass

Stiff as the bristles of an old broom

Your naked body lies

Asleep in the folds of the dark,

While I, leaving in silence,

Enter the woods to hunt.

5.

I push the torn flesh together,

Sealing the skin flaps

As a thin line of blood

Edges around each bite,

Using my fingers, my tongue,

Wondering what animal

Feasted on your sleeping body?

6.

What I have tried to destroy,

What I have seized with the heart

Of the hunter, you have released,

Offering yourself to the wind

With invisible wings that

Beat through my dreams.

7.

Uncaptured, you move further away,

Leaving my hands empty,

Allowing me to fill the space

With a stranger

Clad in your furry body.

8.

I still remember the ugly

Unwashed bodies that moved

So awkwardly in my bed,

Leaving gold teeth and tattoos

In my dreams and dark blood

On the sheets which I am

Still trying to wash away.

9.

And if you choose to return,

If you can see beyond

My deceptions, my cruelty,

I will amputate my hands

And love you with my stumps

That have never touched another.

10.

Beyond lust we lie,

Our bodies spent, our hands

Folded upon our chests,

Our hips touching like stones

That have been smoothed

By years of rubbing together.

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