She Stayed as Steam

All that music in your mouth
rivers rushing to your teeth
surging streams through wading valleys
flooded language tributaries
connect and cover over me
tensing jaw & cork screw eyelids
as if you couldn't bare to see
all that water roaring from you
collecting clouds inside the ballroom
over people who don't know you
but darling i do

you trance yourself back towards the city
blood not moving to your feet
automatic listless shuffle
your foot falls tentative and muffled
your sidewalk scatter brain, cry uncle
you settle back into your corner
and look for her on your tv
it's friday night and i am hungry
for a hand, a mouth, a body
a love i wouldn't have to carry

some stitch in my mouth
and i'm untying now
a concrete canal
in a bomb border town
an echo in the rafters
reminding you there was a sound
but you killed her in waves
she stayed a steam to hiss at you now

cause he killed her in waves
but that's not today
so you breathe through your mouth
you calm yourself down
and hold what you found
so sweet and profound

she can hover and hurt or dissolve to dirt
some prayer in you mouth
or she might stay a steam
soak into the beams
let you figure her out