Slave Quarters
Slave Quarters
The tiger’s coat is one of
imprisonment and draped
around your neck the make believe
where the thick taupe tapestries
of serpents
constrict my body
constrict my breath
those which fled up my ambivalence
a black winding seem upon sheer
sticky hose.
The incinerator and
each tiny hair on my body
a tower erupts in flames
Fevered and paralyzed
women and you.
Slave Quarters
Slave Quarters
Come and
yeah, I’m about to
abandon the heavy Headdress
Feathers crack with flare
as we borrow tigers smoldering
and fucking over your tablature.
Nothing races like between you and I.
RP1997
Louisiana
Louisiana
A mother and son out of a town
where men drive long cars, women
with coral pouts
emerald dresses and fleshy
freckled arms.
Unlike women in oyster sequins
alabaster arms in public stalls
masturbating on pretty candy.
He chewed rock candy, while grandma’s fire engine red
radio plays Ramsey Lewis and taps her taupe sandals,
torn knee highs, to the eight-four count
five two three four
six two three four
Jenny’s twelve year old belly
rubs on the trailer’s shagged floor
He wants a town where a girl
frolics in floral skirts, knees tickled by grass and
reads Mallarme.
And if only Aunt Mary Jo laid off the Xanax
that girl would be impressed with his
sand dollar collections, and Joey’s double joints.
She would be impressed
until he’s out of this town, snapping gum and rolling smoke
imagining her stapled above a bookshelf,
glossy poster Country Western Vixen.
Thinking as he bites the interior of his mouth…
She’s not in Louisiana.
-RPunsalan
c1998
China
CHINA
China anoints her
dragon tongue whips
the convenience on its back
like a stable boy, dirty bronze arms flex
pushing painfully into her crimson mouth.
I remove myself from the East
porcelain vacant
cold woman
kicking and screaming herself to sleep
as butterflies drown
to the Unforgivable antiquity.
Absent and I swing in the playground
that’s pavement is cracking.
Girl’s raped between shop and the gym
and Death adorned
pink, aqua spray paint
The weight of negligence
detached and I from the East
I will assault your requesting mandarin arms with
my enraged heart and paint all your women in cobalt
and pretend you find them cold.
-RPunsalan
c1998
