snake

you snake!

I meditated, I left the door open

My eyes followed your comet as it passed through space

Over jagged caverns and inverted chasms

Past the chomping teeth of lions and warthogs

I trusted you!

That under your cloak of pure black was something good

A balm, a gentle soul, a warm wish

I tracked your every movement, expecting a diversion or transformation but finding only a bewildering consistency.

You first.

Down,

down into my core where you settled and spread your seed

You filled every limb with your blackness,

a grim erasure of the beautiful light I’d collected in my greenhouse.

My storehouses are left without power, and all I can do is exhale

I breathe out,

blowing you out, away from me, I exhale,

exhausting myself to clean the pillars I stand on

I see spatters and wisps of you in front of me, so I continue

It’s slow work, but I continue

to exhale, ex ale

You snake,

let me use you now

To clean myself out,

I will clean my pipes with your bristles,

Sweep my insides with you and expel it all with borrowed passivity

I am not yours anymore.

I am breathing you  out.