over and over

i told you over and over


i told you over and over
the walls were tumbling
along the roadside,
and many of the important people wouldn’t climb out.
weren’t they thinking of going anywhere?
i wasn’t.

loneliness is so macabre that
excoriating lilac
wants my unconscious step-aunt to bomb 
the birdsong dragon,

but the lighted mists of some forgotten childhood dream
are so wet i can slide my fingers right between the edges
of the wound in her belly 
and dance all night, 
burning a terrified warning
to my gentle queen of silence.

                
            

                    — oakland
                         august 2017