O Negative

My fingertips run along his sleeping body
(My hands will never forget him)
His skin smells of a foreign land
That has left scars and bruises on him
But I will heal your wounds as you sleep, lover
And encode every curve, every bone into memory
So that when you leave me
When you're cured and don't need me
I can always remember you.

01.17.07

Cuba Libre

With the fall of the communist king
My lover falls away from me
The winds of change distance him
And I am cast aside
Another woman rises from a ruined foreign land
With an offer of flesh and blood next to her
And I am but a mermaid overlooking this island
Where I once might've belonged too
If time were a little different

My scales turn green with envy
And I cry the entire Atlantic
Where he once almost drowned
Where I once rescued him
He had the prettiest stare
The warmest skin
And while I tried not to get too close
His fish hook grace reeled me in

Stay with me, my refugee
Together we can make waves, hurricanes, whirlpools
Stay with me, my dolphin
We'll swim all day in the warm ocean
Kiss all day in the warm ocean
And make love on different color coral reefs

But his pretty stare doesn't meet mine
And his skin suddenly turns cold to the touch
I know love and responsibility call out to him from the shore
And I can't scream, I can't fight
When he kisses me one last time,
Turns his back, and rejoins his family

Watching him walk away
My seashell heart breaks into a million jagged pieces
I am now broken
Happy for him, but dying
Left hating foreign lands
And mortal communist kings.

08.01.06