Drum and Whistle" and "Black Stems," Two Poems from luca

“Drum and Whistle” And “Black Stems,” Two Poems from luca: Discourse on Life & Death Rochelle Owens Drum And Whistle into the vast heat of spirals because your whitish bones beating drum and whistle morning sun multiplying her fingers loosened her braids her long slow searching encased skull neck body skull neck body around roots yellow skin floating like props looking I heard crows their claws searching their veins and tendons scattered as leaves sweeten clay silt ash your long gray hands cutting measuring skull scalp parchment her forearm tightens spreads over blankets infected with plague seeding spirals of heat loosens her braids black urine runs through silt ash clay shadowed on the walls spilling walls spilling sand and gravel a lira here a lira there sutured through her ruptured flesh tightens cords in Leo n a rdo’s fingers elbow shoulder hip And in heel of cadavre smoke invades one for squirrel one for crow And if you shake leaves feverish master skin paint surgical scar riddled bright-red stems freezing paint freezing urine blood segmented cell segmented cell by cell prototypes saturated he then looked at a circular looked at a circular house walls sand gravel beating drum and whistle deep-pink plague as autumn winter rubs black clay silence walls in remorseless then she looked at a circular house when you looked your veins multiplying splashes black urine they stare down on horseback pursing their lips measuring ransacking fingers crusted fibrous entrails invades cadavre aluminum walls in your neck to side you read parts of the manuscript wrong suppose she reveals peculiar forms them vivifying cording everyday ash and blood whole aluminum pits groups of the first Spaniards in America On a second voyage to Guatemala moves hydrogen helium Lenny’s blanket wrapped around parts of the dissection suppose red wild corn smoke from a burning log the wiry brat ejaculates every foot-print of Flora multiplying your long gray hands stretched your gray hands stretched deer skin Mona made rings gloves crowns masks the outlines of a new country Leo n a rdo seized the wrist of the brat squeezed his throat blood behind his teeth placed the infected blankets one by one stomach and bones crusted for here leave sign of our fate then he looked at a circular house an old Osage woman crushing seeds her iron-gray braids she gouged clay quickly she pulls from fire her saliva pools behind her teeth she pulls from fire a pot spilling morsels of beef half-kneeling Salia’s mouth measures walls then quickly he will fill canvas image of a paysanne flinging a paysanne flinging kernels unwinding her smock crows their claws dark-green stained windows of a stained windows of a cathedral exposed a new country lip-synced Sigmund you wrap a blanket around your waist folds and gathers cross and recross stakes with forked ends into ground deep-pink crust ash spirals of heat I arch my back stretching it is a paysanne bending gracile her brow diagonal lines skull neck you traced a scaffold a forked tree and close upon one of the horses tendons & muscles glowing I saw Salia beating drum and whistle your palms crushing seeds showing lines cross recross circular pulse groups moist soil of names Quicxic bloody wing Quicrixcac bloody claw faults she gouged clay I murmured into Lenny’s ear groups of the first Spaniards in America written on the stomach and bones fragment shovels gravel sand clay my doubt remains widening circles circles slowly Leo n a rdo fingers he rouges his nipples the brat stares down from a scaffold arches his back stretches his neck riders cutting out entrails their lips intone pulsate behind ice walls gouged with names crossed recrossed tribes on horseback winding her iron-gray braids quickly she fills canvas stretching roots disgorges ancient corn plants extracting one light amber stone idol when gravel sand blown on wind walls in flames of stone divided roots a black rain fell then silence and slow soaking crust ash flames swerving deep-pink plague a forked tree slicing their flesh resin sap sweetens moonlit vines Sigmund mused fascinated the Lords of Xibalba horse and rider in

Art · Borges, Kipling, and Jewish Identity · Medicine · Anatomy