12:15 rain

i see what has been done
to the rose, bottom half residing in the sapphire vase; top half
(with the bloody rose on it)
hanging on to the battered prickly stem part for dear life
brokenbeauty
i can NOT do more than crY OUt in empathetic pAIn/terror
as the drooping half loses its grip on the thorny bottom half and with the grace
of death falls onto the smooth cedar wood

in my mouth the cedar wood is sweet/bitter/spicy like a
lover's skin: the taste of heavy copper, ginger/pepper and hot sandalwood

spicy-sweet bitterness
(or was it bittersweet spiciness)

i take the wood out my mouth and stare
at it, dark and slick from spit; turning on the faucet of
12:15 rain
i wash it off and set it dripping in the vase's blue shade

coughing uncontrollably i realize that
something is in my mouth
a rose petal

the 12:15 rain shreds the rose
sending shards

of blood

down

the

drain

Paper or Pastiche?
Ganymede's Library
Ganymede's Palace