Lovely Penguin

Reptile charms
By Marie Gordon

Your cool breath hovers
Over shaking prey
Your deep voice whispers
Of gruesome fates

Green-eyed mirrors beam
Frames in shiny strands
Deriving smooth greed
From mousy sweats

And trembling beads drip
While glossy claws grin
How weak is the heart
That pulsates pleas

How strong is the smile
That breeds off cold flesh
Jagged and silky
The reptile’s charms

Molting
By Marie Gordon

You drag the razor
Over your face
And wriggle out
Of your saggy skin

With a sanguine smile
Your skin slithers
Your crow’s feet peel
Off into the sink

Twinkling green eyes grin
In the mirror
At shiny skin
And the musky smell
Of new flesh

Hunter
By Marie Gordon

I could smell you chirping
With lemur eyes
I could hear you cowering
With mousy ears

This forest reeks of you
With twinkling leaves
The bloody bark will dribble
So eerie still

How you scamper, rustling
Snapping branches
As you tumble into fate
With thumping heart

You are my sweet delight
With tender meat
Oh so delicately pierced
By the hunter

Taxidermy
by Marie Gordon

I slide my knife
Under your fur
Silky and groomed
Sweet weasel

What will I make
Out of your pelt
Maybe a hat
Or a scarf

What do you think
Beady-eyed worm
How do you sleep
So soundly

Do you recall
Your last moments
Taut in my grip
Did you fear

How you squirmed
Little deer
In the headlights
Wide-eyed fiend

Weasel, you’ve stitched
Your final scheme
Woven and dried
Sweet weasel

Disposable
By Marie Gordon

You dropped me
Like a plastic razor
You toss in the can
After a dull shave

You cleaned up
The little black fragments
Of hair in the sink
And you forgot me

As I sobbed
Little red specks faded
Into the fabrics
In my laundry pile

Red turns brown
As time forgets that blood
Once vital soon dies
Or so I was told

So I washed
Scrubbed the stains of you off
Of clothing, off me
But you were still there

I felt you
As I scrubbed you sunk in
Deep in my tissue
Deeper, in my fears

Vital lust
It faded ever quick
But not so fast the pangs
That your lust had tripped

I begged you
Perhaps not out of greed
Or even for pride
But for vital signs

That spoke soft
To me and told the truth
Of a growing heart
Drumming from your lies

Oh sweet truth
How bitter greed deceives
Dormant but to plague
My youth as you wipe

The shavings
That you assume remain
All that’s left of me
On your tidy sink

And far out
From bitter consequence
Your thoughts idly drift
While flecks clog the drain

Perhaps truth
You never grew enough to face
While I hardly blinked
To spill childish tears

Oh God forgive
The heart that wishes true
Such soured lies
And the lips that sinned

Truth, grow strong
Within my little cave
That will ache for you
As you shave your stubbly chin

Playing cross-sections
By Marie Gordon

Take a slice of my bone
As if I were a tree
And try to guess my age
From traces of old breaks

Take a piece of my brain
As if I were a chip
Insert it in your drive
Will you watch my story

Maybe you’ll hide your screen
Or turn the volume down
Even if you don’t please
Will you try not to judge

I wonder if you’ll cry
When you watch the sad parts
And that one violent scene
Will you understand me

Watch the story then see
If it matches the bone
Will you dismiss the tale
If the bone is too fresh

Or maybe hit rewind
When you write your results
Examine the bone’s marks
Magnify them to check

Maybe I’m a young bone
Without the thickest trunk
Lacking rings but holding
The density of life

Laundry heap romance
By Marie Gordon

Don’t look at me
I’m not the one
Who frosted the cupcakes
With a fork

You crush my hopes
Of eating out
Nibbling carry-out wings
By myself

You leave the sink
After shaving
Littered with chest hair
You chuckle

Then patronize
The one that scrapes
Your chocolate bunnies
Off the floor

If you loved me
You would vacuum
The tile at minimum
So I thought

I’ve scrubbed your stains
For the last time
You laugh in disbelief
Some stains bleed

Love tough
By Marie Gordon

I’ll wait up for you ‘til three
Fold your faded shirts
And iron your slacks
As if to nudge you along

I’ll watch you from the sidelines
For the trailing match
And cheerlead you on
Hang in for another round

I’ll sweep up the broccoli
Left from your cooking
And hope you take note
Of me or the polished floor

But if you’ll see me today
It won’t be the next
That I’ll soak your shoes
So you’ll wear them with a smile

No it won’t be tomorrow
If we meet today
And if I push you
You’ll send me home with my bags

Perhaps you knew all along
That I’d loved too deep
And you just so much
To know love wasn’t enough

Said the tree to the squirrel

By Marie Gordon

If I feed you for life
Will you be my squirrel
Will you scamper over me
And entertain

If I nourish your games
Will you let me watch
Or stand in for a picture
And be your friend

If I give you a home
Will you be my squirrel
That scratches and climbs my trunk
That calls me home

If I give you my limbs
And I feed you too
Will you etch into my veins
A greedy sign

If I give you all this
Will you warm my limbs
Will you embrace me with paws
And be my squirrel

The ever-moon
by Marie Gordon

It’s 3am at night
I’m ticking half awake
You’re in the foggy grey
That’s clouding my contacts

In my empty beer can
Over the piling trash
My eyes fall comatose
On the remnants of you

You are the night that seeps
And hollows out my brain
You are the one that doused
My giving with your greed

Bring back the rainy days
The sun that dully shines
The drizzling heart that kept
Its tenderness on hand

Fade out, fade out cruel moon
That purples arid eyes
And blood lets bulging hearts
Like rising red balloons

You’ve drizzled my goodbyes
Into my pink sclera
You’ve got your pound of flesh
It’s time to pack your camp