i. Lead ❧

          There’s no love in my bed,
fill in the grave before daybreak—

                                        Tell them it’s like my death,
                              this night I spend breathless, awake—

          Ta(l)king in a prophet’s
tongue, my lips are laws pressed against—

                                                                      Broken gr(a)ins rolling bones,
                                                            sighs smoked to dew, dampening scrolls—

                              ii. Tin ❧

          Broad brows wet, smooth moonlit
marble across which scatter leaves—

                                        I speak with silent flame,
                              our mouths caves I paint electric—

          paving paths through patchwork
histories we’ve loomed, kissing fools—

                                                                      Reluctant to consume
                                                            faith’s honeyed words, I swallow you—

                              iii. Iron ❧

          Leviathan these limbs
we lick, charging two knots to spark—

                                        I light filaments when
                              defiant desire slips my guard—

          Obliging theatre
to p(l)ay fire, denying metre—

                                                                      I transgress dead poets
                                                            and burn pantheons to express—

                              iv. Copper ❧

          Whispering into clay
death’s wind four canopic lungs break—

                                        Two lives sustained by it,
                              this noontide breath whose heat we shame—

          One kiss the burial
place where we lay to rest what scalds—

                                                                      This temptation to lie
                                                            to our Selves and let legend live—

                              v. Mercury ❧

          To take up a myth, my
mouth reluctant to give us truth—

                                        I kiss, I kiss, and kiss,
                              Ionas running from his mission—

          Loose and sinking ships, I
let hit yours this tentacle grip—

                                                                      Pulling your tongue under
                                                            and mine in, we kiss together—

                              vi. Silver ❧

          What paradise Heaven’s
thick thunderous fists split apart—

                                        Our hearts’ inmost chambers
                              to the lost depths of which I swim—

          Red passages unlocked
by shared thoughts, hot wax dripped like sin—

                                                                      Onto nipples bitten
                                                            by secrets, my ritual ends—

                              vii. Gold ❧

          Asking of fantasy
if your memory can seed me—

                                        Ancient episodes grown
                              from truant embers fade slowly—

          Heroic shadows take
from time’s throat the gardener’s spade—

                                                                      Making wails of what we
                                                            pray for, this love our tomb spits out.