We were so close, there was no room
We bled inside each other’s wounds…
          —Melanie¹

                    i.

Chessbored men soldiering into standing
black, maneuvering moves put on
the way broken records continue
to play, repeating as if
in a mirror movements no
orchestra would make you beg
to hear, our backs turned
against the night, pretending at
fighting desires, torn pants falling
like curtains onto complacent floors,
arousal as theatre, trousers weighted

                    ii.

down waiting for anticipation racing
through trap doors, flying beneath
boxer-briefs toward rapturous warmth, hands
twisting knifes of meat grinding
to hardened encores, gripping until
spoiled swollen wealth of bountiful
flesh soiled with fantasies of
won wars, fists gripping and
groping until solid more than
ever molten iron of ours
poring effort’s exerted sweat, lapping

                    iii.

to a lather its mutual
reward, fingers holding out, eight
tongues and two thumbs counting
on no one but two
fiends to give a sighing
hushed, beastly friends benefitting the
way unwed husbands, two buds,
do after dusk when frying
up sizzling fucks we offer
up on ego-altered weekends priestly
things like sucking off someone

                    iv.

blameless tastes less innocent once
made public, testing fame’s waters
threatening to forego anonymous fun
and publish on the Internet
high definition reimaginings of our
best sins, teasing forward more
before pulling back hoods, unsheathing
heads to their hilts, full
tilt beguiling and guiltless knights
knotting ropes from swords as
though moans were syllables which

                    v.

would suffice for words, how
beneath the eyes and ears
of the world, cloaked in
shadow, two heathen pilgrims crusade
to persuade no one else
but our Selves, each other
another gullible question sexuality marks
with exclamations punctuating aliases and
alibis until lying changes its
false part to better portray
how depraved we really are

                    vi.

in our cravings’ ravenous art,
carving inhibitions from hearts, cutting
fat applicants from auditions for
our thinning beards, women pulling
strings marionette puppet partnerships kings
only live to regret, eating
out cakes lest we miss
out on getting head before
losing it the way Louis
and Marie Antoinette did, tonight
we guillotine that self-ashamed bullshit

                    vii.

self-esteem wishes we would rid
our Selves of, thickening skin
embracing it, getting acquainted with
the scent and taste, the
flourish and flavour, of both
we together savour, this is
the way we worship what
obscene force sustains us, this
lust which stains love, rusts
its armour above and below
polished surfaces its purchase tarnishes

                    viii.

impure, paramours enamoured of being
abhorred by the hordes of
the world whose censors we
boors adore boring with our
whoring’s rhetoric all the more
when, by tomorrow, we will
have defiled every moral of
theirs they themselves ignore behind
closed doors, as if virtue
were some porn only Puritans
perform over and over again!

__________
¹“Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)”, written by Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk. Copyright © 1970 by Bienstock Publishing Company (ASCAP) and Quartet Music (ASCAP). Administered by Carlin America, Incorporated on behalf of Round Hill Music, LP and BMG Rights Management (US) LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Round Hill Music, LP and BMG Rights Management (US) LLC. ¶ “Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)” originally appeared as track A2 on Melanie’s 1970 studio album, Candles in the Rain, released by Buddah Records, Incorporated as 33⅓ rpm LP record catalogue number BDS 5060. Accompanied by The Edwin Hawkins Singers contributing choral backing vocals, the song was arranged by John Abbott, recorded with guitar played by Melanie herself in addition to her composition and singing, congas played by Ricky Reyes, piano played by Edwin Hawkins, engineered by Fred Catero, and produced by Peter Schekeryk. ¶ As a single released in March of 1970 (Buddah Records, Incorporated, 45 rpm record catalogue number 610 054), the song peaked at position number six on the Billboard “Hot 100” record chart in the United States, and was a number one single in Canada and the Netherlands that same year.