extinguished

when she leaves again
I’m left to admire her
departing figure, the way
her country/western shirt
clings to her slender back.
I count the tarnished
silver sockets
lacking rhinestones like
dead stars sequestered
in the Persephone
constellation.
an affair defined
by absence.

~

union station, Nashville

of course, it takes me only
five minutes to get ready
freeing me to linger near
the doorway of the bathroom
witnessing Sera’s ritual,
her secret ceremonies
of lotions and oils.
she anoints her forehead
with a touch of sandalwood.
Moses, she says, described
god as smelling of
sandalwood and myrrh.
and while I don’t believe
in a biblical god,
I, nonetheless, agree
with Moses’ claim.

~

nature of things

kittens are such cruel gods
in the eyes of crickets.
soft paws battering,
crunching exoskeletons,
captured, nibbled,
given the brief illusion
of freedom before
the next mid-air swat.

whiskers and antenna
nearly meet
like the forefingers
of a
lackadaisical deity
and its
diminutive plaything.
alien eyes
regard each other,
absent of abstraction,
empty of empathy.