Salty rims and too-warm wine
it took me two minutes to do my makeup in the rear vision mirror
hands trembling like stuck cicadas
as they slide closer to my knees
i’m so late,
(28!)
Unshackled, undone
the nail in the coffin of my aborted marriage
a life in ruins
and I’m high on adrenaline
how far can I take this?
Pour me another,
and I’m losing grip
on the mess I’ve left,
the screaming mouths
a broken home, gasping bed sheets
that were so recently filled
spilling with our familial warmth
too warm, too much flesh
breeding maggots in the road kill of our silences
Tell me I’m pretty
let your hands run
in the kaleidoscopic claustrophobia
of this celebration hall
Here is my youth
in the flat of my palm
the stretch of my skin towards your shoes
Floating, free
I’m sea-green and sinking
Can you see the way
the floodlights catch ahold of every swollen drop,
the underside of every gum leaf
silver and shivering
I’ve lost it all,
but I’m finding you in every drag
Unencumbered, skyward
the wet grass
soaking into my underwear
Is it your arms I can see extended towards me?
your chest
a sun-warmed rock
your elbows sturdy
as I
let go
Sweetly Unhappy People 