"Notice the Blood"

David Hunter Sutherland
Fishkill, NY
USA
3468441@mcimail.com

Deep South v.1 n.3 (Spring, 1995)

Copyright (c) 1995 by David Hunter Sutherland, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the New Zealand Copyright Act 1962. It may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that the journal is notified. This consent does not extend to other kinds of copying, such as copying for general distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collective works, or for resale. For such uses, written permission of the author and the notification of the journal are required. Write to Deep South, Department of English, University of Otago, P. O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Notice the Blood

Before the explosion,
blesses our charred souls, 
and its ashes Good Friday you
with kisses,

We will make love,
lips narrowed to a chitinous smile,
bodies pulsing to the flash-fire phantoms of
pearly lights, phosphers and lavas caressed about
skin imitating breast.
Our blackbody wafed upon a kites' smooth glide and
twirling madly as the Autumn leaf 
falls . . .

A moment before impact,
the class bell rings,
the parlor shop closes,
the lady with the nails tightens her skirt a notch,
and our Gods chant an "Auld Lang Syne" too banners forgotten . . .

But,
before the explosion rattles
this mortal chain of
spillovers, contersunks, drains and vague prepositions . . .

We will make love,
lucid in the throes of a nuclear orgasm,
blind as the hot ash of nuptials bake our senses 
into the melting asphalt, and
naked . . . as if,
one can almost peel back the numbness of
layered muscle and hardened capillaries.
Our passion now river-filled over 
as the rivulets of lines and cracks
notice the blood.

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