THE MAD GIRL LONGS
FOR NEW MEXICO

before she bent
over backwards
like someone who
dumped her like
a too soft bed
as edges of clouds
turned moons lacy.
Apache ghosts
in her wrists, his
eyes were turquoise,
his tongue a prairie
dog hunting all 
night in the kiva
of her spread
thighs under
ground as pepper
leaves arched
toward their 
own light 

THE MAD GIRL DREAMS
OF NEW MEXICO, WAKES UP
SHAKING

Joshua Tree Motel
her thighs a
pomegranate splitting,
staining sheets under
his hair as stars
glued mesquite to the
blue dust of her
belly and the 
rattle snake of his
words slithered over
tequila lips he'd
chewed, felt the
sting of later

THE MAD GIRL WAKES UP,
LIGHT BLAZING
THRU SHUTTERS

but it's the black in
her, a fist of
night, onyx rose
unfolding, a black
swan in her throat
like licorice
water flooding
downstairs, a night
ice seals locks in 
doors under her
pulse, under hair
she held out in
dreams like a
lasso, a ladder
blood petals snarl,
turn to a noose

THE MAD GIRL WAKES UP,
DARKNESS BLOATING INSIDE HER

a black forsythia
branch exploding
under her skin,
pressing leaves
against her
wrists, her 
belly. Licorice
petals drift to
her eyes, burn
like the flames
a knife slices
that eats the dead
animal's blood