Haven

all victims are thieves

we steal from each other

power is stretched thin

between us

nowhere is safe

it’s always twilight

and we’re all enemies

i am shocked

by the darkness in her kiss

our sacred places

have been violated

we are just as much hunter

as we are hunted

 

there is a small bird’s heart

discarded in the snow

my hands hold the knife

yours shake

drenched in blood

which one of us held the creature down?

which one of us made the first cut?

don’t you also love

breaking bones?

how easily they give in

to destruction

no one is safe from us

 

i’ve become lost

among the Pleiades

fissioning among the heavens

having split myself

in half

i wait here

discarding my predator parts

between your teeth

so far out

this search for shelter

inside your mouth

your words have swallowed me whole

 

how do i tell her

that no one is safe?

all utopias are children

of secret, hidden hells

we are erupting behind our masks

we are nothing if not the sex we have

or have not

we touch skin to assess

the damage we’ve done

we remain quiet in our fury

she told me

Alcyone and Merope

will destroy each other

in the sky

they are falling to pieces

they are putting themselves

back together

with parts, stolen

from women they have loved

we are binary stars

interstellar, luminous

circling endlessly

in the false haven

of nightfall

Declawed, Defanged

you’ve had me

declawed, defanged

demoted to child

another, older daughter

who breaks  apart

rib cages

makes them shields

to hide behind

who untwists their

twisted spines

when better work

could not be done

by one who wasn’t

kittenish, young

i am always replaced

by those who are

softer, less complex

and have no need to make

weapons

from the bones of others

 

it might be tragic

were she a challenge

to anyone at all

it might be smarter

to keep her

small and pink

and powerless

one day she might

become a threat

coldest calculation says

youth does not last

and even those

who have been

declawed, defanged

have no trouble

fighting their attackers

with some measure

of success

 

i have been made

lover

of strangers

then forced

to make their bed

comfortable

for the next

each pain

more insurmountable

than the last

children do not grow

into this

you wonder why

i hide

in the halls of your fortress

in the walls of your

hardened heart

here you have

hammered out

a place for me

it is bloodless

and it is cold

but it is safe

when there is nothing

but ice

between my legs

and mercury

in my veins

and on my skin

a delicate, white lace

here we are protected

from each other

here i am protected

from myself