New Poem

You who are beautiful: I was too.
My red mouth smoked like a waiting grave.
The infinity of resistances binding the infinity
between. Eyes in the dark
glistening like ice cubes.
*
Outside my window a world of meat beckoned.
The buildings were high. The elevators full.
There were ceramics of children, 
and little plastic signs for every eager merchant .
*
I recall a walk with Mrs M. Her sighs flowing out to meet the water.
How the clouds became buildings, and the tree’s mad noises between the cars.

*
Those ruins had their charm. And there was no one to gainsay
the fabulous that haunted them. The marinated and tender meats
and the dainty sweets we rested on.
*
So I had a fine shave. Only a little blood trickling from the mouth.
(I’m a vampire he thought,
Then quickly realized that was someone else.)
*
The double as darkness,  hiding as motive.
His cravat and sharkskin a shambles down the 
avenue.
*
Things added up haphazardly then,
clouds amidships, toppling
clouds, The blue overarching
the summations of its further hues.
The wind whispering: we are here for love.
The grass sighing: we are emeralds and we are alive
as the birds kissed the worms and cried.
Beauty between. Flesh the cornice.



 
 

 

— David Hickman