Three Questions
The baby boy comet will need a new kidney one day.
Robot cat understands found objects become body parts.
Eyes as stars watch this womb of bountiful fruit.
His birth among biospheres—containers of blue, green,
and orange leaves falling like tears. Later, waves of salad
and feathers toss the young child. He recovers and stands
naked on a cobalt orb.
His triangular mind
forms three questions:
How can the fawn sleep while dreaming of phone numbers?
What do twins ponder across the diffused landscape?
Does the goddess near the palm hold a lotus for prayer?
Red flags rip as he tries to find her lips in black heavens.
A distraction of jeweled butterflies with wings
in stop-motion. Below an elephant dances beyond an old
oak grove. One faceless trunk disconnects from its treetop.
He spies a spotted beast among soaring branches raging
past the lustrous cat and a radiating Madonna.
In the sky.
In the water.
In the roots.
Exposed!
It’s like the glorious glow
a candle makes
when the planetary citizen
cradles her flickering flame
in glass. Red cloth folds, drapes
head, shoulder, breast.
You draw a red circle,
encounter a young man
soaked in lemon light—skin taut—
not yet eroded like the boulders
that scrape his back.
The planetary citizen gazes
across the cosmos,
mother of all, like the pregnant
Madonna. Your green fingers
clasp her fertile pulse.
A snakewoman smears in his
shadow—naked body quivers
with snake appendages,
then cracks in half revealing inner
motors. Cables, wires,
and tubes hang like tentacles.
You try to give the planetary
citizen a name, but her body bursts
into branches cut by ropes
and silent screams.
He doesn’t see this balancing
act and senses snakewoman’s
scent and scales. The word breathe
woodcut into the atmosphere
as the Madonna births a planet.
Your chromosomes desire
to live there. Lattice disguises
the hiss of snakewoman’s hollow
heart. If he travels near the speed
of light, will he age slower
than the chafe of her?
Flowers & Rebozos
Rockets exploded blue
fuzzy edges—
stars scattered like seeds
over Funeral Mountains
held burial shroud
yucca spikes
Daisies whispered across
her chest.
She placed two burgundy
lilies in a vase
to share what was lost
what water was left
It’s as if melted wax
wept flowers
pearls,
lingerie and
alphabets. Unspoken
words kaleidoscoped her
mind, but the parrot
squawked,
Time to go
During the procession,
Granddaughter adorned herself—
crown of eucalyptus,
dragonflies and wild
grasses; mask of roses;
candy skull earrings and
a rebozo
turquoise and yellow
finely woven
knotted of rayon and silk
with matching feather
fringe. Her grandmother
had created it as gossip flew
Granddaughter’s eyes—
sparkly irises dripped
jewels