The Soft Assault

      A scream arrives 
      as eloquent as a silent film,
      Chaplin eating his shoe from hunger,
      us eating our screams from love.
5     Has it been so long since
      our mouths had found the strength
      to swim at each other like fish and kiss?
      Water whooses from our guts into water,
      urine and fishshit deflating from us,
10    the sound a no-sound of silence.
      So long and so hungrily we moved toward each other,
      paired plants heliotroped on our sunny dope
      and ache for greatness, a spine of thorns
      elevating the ticklish emptiness of a rose.
15    I cared for no God taller than your caress,
      your hot neck caught on my calluses.
      The crevices where we creased together
      like folded skin melted in a blue matchstick
      are full of crossed eyes and crossed hairs,
20    backwards assassins 
      that cannot see what they are killing
      but fumble for the tricky trigger by habit
      blindly as worms.
      Together we mouth the sound of "Pow"
25    like children
      pulling their fingers on air.

 

From the collection "The Soft Assault"

Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]

More information available on gregglory.com.