Lucifer
relaxes
over
my right
shoulder.
A carnation
for
your soul
he
whispers
to the
swan-
neck
faucet
poised above
my
stainless
steel
kitchen
sink.
The swan-neck
faucet
squeezes
my reflection,
elongates
it like
a
torn
&
bruised
El Greco
cloud.
A woman's transparent eyes the color
of mantis eyes.
Pupils, tiny black seeds
at the center of pale jade.
Eyebrow twitches;
a flock of starlings sweeps sideways
as November exhales.
Dusk crosses her blue legs
nearby
in a white lawn chair.
Dusk doesn't say a word
as she glances across
the yellow eyelashes
of flowing broccoli.
It's like you're holding a poker hand
and fate suddenly snatches
your wild card
and there's nothing
you can do about it!
So, right then,
slip into your most comfortable
skin,
whether naked
or drenched
in fireplace light licking a champagne glass
causing you to resemble
a healthy young jaguar,
and cinch your soul
tightly above despair.
Next, I would invite this fate
over for a meal
consisting of mango, pistachio, Swiss chocolates,
and heavily-doctored Jamaican coffee.
Then quickly press
your warm, quivering lips
against fate's humid waist.
This is no time
to be coy!
Alan Britt teaches English at Towson University. His recent books are Greatest Hits (2010), Hurricane (2010), Vegetable Love (2009), Vermilion (2006), Infinite Days (2003), Amnesia Tango (1998) and Bodies of Lightning (1995). He has recently been published in The Bitter Oleander, Christian Science Monitor, Confrontation, English Journal, Epoch, Flint Hills Review, Fox Cry Review, Kansas Quarterly, Magyar Naplo (Hungary), Midwest Quarterly, New Letters, Pacific Review, Puerto del Sol, Queen’s Quarterly (Canada), Sou’wester and Square Lake, plus the anthologies, For Neruda, For Chile (Beacon Press), Fathers: Poems About Fathers (St. Martin’s Press) and La Adelfa Amarga: Seis Poetas Norteamericanos de Hoy (Ediciones El Santo Oficio, Peru). He occasionally publishes the international literary journal, Black Moon. Photo by Richard A. Koch.