(1 John 4:18 "...But perfect love cast out fear...")

He lives in me like heartburn—
constant.
His seething chemicals clog
my air’s passage way;
all colors
turn gray.
His seed dominates
my emotions’egg;
together,
we conceive
Anxiety.
Come, Love,
sever this cord:
exorcise my demon-child.

Backstage: before my new york recital

Sometimes we dance together
tippy-toed, teetering
on cement ledges
high
up
in
Night

She draws me
into her
bosom
with a
motherly
embrace;
i am
covered.

i
ache
to swaddle
my black body
in her
midnight tapestry, and

fall
asleep (forever)
where

fears
can’t
torment me.

i reject her
embrace, and
embrace the
scorching, Bright
Scorpion.

onstage at my new york recital

—an armed fiend.

One crisp strike—

He’s inside! ,

playing surgery with my belly.

His poison-tipped taunter

pierce perpendicular—

thrashing—snipping—biting—di/ssecting… — rendering me

s_p_r_a_w_l_e_d_

across an icy, sterile stage

trembling—

knotted entrails

dangling out—

Exposed—

no friendly darkness to blanket me—

Voice

aborted, breath

strangled-to-death—

Confidence, Self-Esteem

dripping, pooling

on
the
floor
.
.
.
.

Two Amigos

As I scurried down my path

flustered-
stum bling-
dis/com/bo/bu/la/ted & out-of-joint-

two dogs —resting— on a bed of grass

still
together
present (in life)

. . . bathing in the day . . .
darning in each moment . . .

One said, with dark gentle eyes,

"slow down (dear one)

to strive is not necessary, but to

lie
in the grass
with a friend,

tis."