corpse gas

saucer white eyes
my carcass embalmed
in morphine like solitude
one once asleep has,
again to earth i walk ,
wondering what hunger
would be like
if i had any innards left at all,
having served my incarceration
in wooden box below ground,
it was a hiccup
that startled me,
how could i,
i gulped in air but
no internal gases,
oh hang on
i had those of decay
my breath must stink,
and wanted to cease
this jerking that
made my walk lopsided,
beyond the gates
a town not so familiar
my house someone else’s
stood on clipped lawn
i hiccuped gain more loudly
looked around it was dark
and silent,
are you a monster
i jumped,
looking down at a little girl
who startled me so
and my hiccups stopped,
no i just have wind

blood of the cucurbita

we are myth

we are legend,

behind fences we are found

bred and sacrificed on all hallows eve,

generations past

gutted and carved in celebration,

so misunderstood seen only as decoration

as human skulls on poles once where,

unlike my wild cousins in mexico

scattered over landscape and mountain,

they do not suffer the tampering

of our genetics

79 loci,

phenotypic slides for frankenstein,s scientist

altered , inbred,

not realizing our beauty

in shape and color

palmate leaves , long tendrils

unisexual flowers touched by gentle bee

curling about stamen

stroking with long legs

collecting pollen my yellow stain

peponapis body thrumming

resonant on my petals,

10,000 years of domestication

treated worse than dogs

compliant in nature as man knows best

our flesh substance forgotten

as gourd display incised and flensed

to amuse and terrify

projects of another’s nature

that is more disturbing and cruel

Pitiful Fear of Being Undead

when you see things at night

from that pointed edge of eye,

lack of concentration makes you

fall,

with split dusty lip

blood in a trickle,

there are things that need

to bite to eat,

so hold your breath

and let a simple fear grow,

lurking in the doorway

bareheaded prowler of the night,

heart a ticking clock

raising a clamor

no mortal creature approaches,

mopping blood on paper tissue

red stain dropped scented a plenty,

he has strayed from his paradise

and i am to be his chalice,

teeth and lips taste my flesh,

memories blend and blur,

heart slows to a dull stutter,

revelations pause and pass,

i will go to earth

a blacken chrysalis

and raise my fear another day