smashed by softness of airbags, we'd live,
seat-belted, insured against human error
by human vanity.
the moon bums a cigarette, and the wheels still,
radio broadcasting trees.
my mouth and you. poles and compasses.
separated by shapes and inches, we
sound mammals of thought.
i know i
will not kiss you.
you know me
better.
the air and you.
why all these hands and buttons and eyebrows? your lips,
never a mystery. you
open there.
closed,
i will not forget.
icebergs of memory clash in my mind, penguins
refusing to fly, feigning the real.
the night.
apes and lips.
i will not kiss.
remember that devil,
with his silly horns and the mantle of temptation,
waved in front of the innocents,
painted with sanguine tears?
leave them in your churches - she
lost her tail forever.
sitting,
splitting seconds across from prayer.
i demand
to sin!
to win.
incubators and their cars. peace and its conferences. man and his ribs.
what of me,
my starched mouth?
questions, words, redemptive poetics,
he.
he - a cosmonaut of your space.
i - your satellite.
all - late reflections of the expanding.
here,
here i do not kiss.
fumes propel the car.
roads straighten in the presence of
love.
i adjust
my seatbelt.
10.17.98
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