Rioja

One sip
and the skyline
starts to soften.
Ignore the glare
of a nun-faced moon.
Crush out the stars
in an ash tray.
Let the moths rest
and glitter
on your cuffs.

Gulp down
that dark blue
backlash of night
until
you can almost taste
the milk of the morning
until you can feel
the key of his tongue
turning the shadows
and sweetening
the black.

The man who dripped Digitalis

He could charm the poison out of fox gloves
and used his skills to quicken my heart.
I wondered what he fed on: frayed liturgies
and the secret dreams of women
toxic spores translated into messages
of lust, slivers of the dank March sky
rolled up like pickled herring.
I never knew. He always skimmed me
left me hooked on some potent pollen
some sacrificial line
some cold gap between sentiments.
His fingers were like cathedrals
too big to untie my delicate knots
yet he knew me inside out like he knew
the names of flowers and bats and clouds
like he knew how to throw daggers
without skewering the soul.
He could sniff out creeping wolf-men
and crack their backbones with a lazy wink
worked my fingers to his throat
like a snake charmer
made me slide and arch with his singing breath.
After we’d loved and I was doped up on glow
he laid wet silver on my eyelids
believing it would bring him luck.
He told me he wanted me to wear
red in bed so I wore it on my lips
I wore it in my memory
and the sleep was good.

Canticle
 
Our whole loving metropolis
is crumbling.
Ornamental hearts
have fallen off gateposts.
The sun-sucked river
is hissing for alms.

There were words once.
Now they’re gone
wiped off your lips
like biscuit crumbs
and I have nothing
just the dry silence
the murmur
of things dissolving

and I sit here
trying to tap the void
trying to remember a life
pumped full of colour:
nights tinged
with peacock green
moths crushed into gold dust
cold blue canticles of frost. 

Salvation will come
with the thunder.
Your old touch will swell
in the drag of rain.
Ignited by lightning
our eyes will be
feverish again.
Our fat tongues will flicker
with song.

Gaia Holmes