Steve Halle (Palatine, Illinois, USA): from Blackbirds

a strained female face,
beads of sweat
her concentration camp

every word spoken
aching knee on kneeler
in pillory of all
denominations are granular, if
you’ll remember

nipple peak, pique
peek sheet white, rubied

perk up shrift, elbow discomfort,
warming lubricant or mopping
up the thick aftermath

stains and burns

barely out of teens
it’s discovered.

sweat wall, cross-hatched
wicker with lipstick, grief
in darkness, a voice sounds
like half a wrinkled face

mid-mass, a bird enters
church, confused feathers
aflutter, it lingers among
rafters, while i ponder
over kneelers, among dissonant
voices of god and Other

half-memorare, naughty in uniform,
kim unfurls, reeling on dope
and nicotined, buzzing late rebuzz
rebound each mispronunciation
an obligation, a misguided
angel gilds a season with weather
severs eardrums in silence
song a frequency above, vibratto

weeping into orgasms
over risqué pages

still half-hard, a thighbite
this passion a rush
of adrenaline over impropriety

finger trace nipples in concentric
circles leaving burn
marks wanting grafts

hum, hiss, strum, click, the vic.’s
needle dum-dee-dums
beyond reach, like bedded
sins of lazy passions
Cistercian, cervical, and blossoms.

© Steve Halle 2007