Tell Me No
Dennis Arlo Voorhees
Pink fingernails
fill the front yard.
Go ahead, arrange the fireplace.
The world operates
from your enemy’s bellybutton.
Those are cherry blossoms
littered on the lawn.
We can glue together butterflies.
After Sara attends a funeral
she wants to kill somebody.
Isn’t the sun your favorite iceberg,
the night a black moth glittered with lice?
Don’t empty glasses break?
Wind from Chicago
thaws in each ribcage. Please
wrap a milk snake around your wrist.
Somebody with bad rhythm
orchestrates the dark.
Can’t we return home
like kidnapped sisters,
then yell for our horses when our hearts heat up?
Aren’t all moments wrong
gray sculptures of dead tongues?
Aren’t all tongues gray?
Kissing, I feel my lips corrode.
Azaleas wait for us
to arrive always one day
late, confessions postponed.
Don’t bloom for us. Don’t die.
Don’t empty glasses break?
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