Dirty Hair

Dirty Hair

combing greasy hair

with his fingers or maybe a bamboo fork

while laughing sweetly at

my hilarious jokes

a year of kerosene

lit by matches

with round soft heads

heated the space

between us

Fall 2017

Billy Goat

One for the Billy Goat

Why was her head wrapped

like a mummy

face down no space

anymore between

preservation and decay

muffled flies swarm the mirror

news came today

she let down her

hair tumbling out the

tower window like

Rapunzel

Are you there?

Are you there?

in the closet

Skeleton Stamen

Boney petals soured

perfume buttoned

under a pleated corset

white velvet fluted lies

black-eyed peas and yams

for dinner on Lucas Street

miniature metal soldiers

marched on marbled formica

shuffle ball change

wheelbarrow grease

and a dead robin

at my bare feet.

BK

May 2017