when we were monarchs, 1994

when we were monarchs
for an entire morning
and the golden dawn and tremulous evening
hung like draperies in our new chemical sky

we blink at the sun and we scratch
my loins stirring like furnaces dipped into serenity

the uproar of blue wine
the new winter rain
loosens peninsulas of my spreading self
that do dances like a diva-Christ across pools
of our voluptuousness

your magnificent shoulder blades
and the telephone poles
run, in the wake of the awakening phosphorous
scattering daylight and the shutters from old shotguns
down to the brown gulf

green night rebounds, enters the corners
hairnets of lightning strobe our bliss
coating our ferment like gunshots
in the abyss of exalted doves