Lioness, Lioness

Lioness, lioness bring all to swift right

lioness, lioness strike surely tonight.

And you

have

crumbled

acquiesced

caved in

to triage traps

let down the furling freedoms

and retreated with taps

where the trick

is to try

not to look

like a spy

or a trite

little trollop

or tramp.

And the message

is garbled

by gambit

or goad.

And the cypher

is cracked

with camp

or code.

And if only the comments

and the deft smirks and nods

could escape the shake-downs

and stamps and jihads...

Frisked, frowning, fucked by the scrutinous

followed, failed, felled by the mutinous

tickers, talkers, tellers of truth

rickety, crotchety, stealers of youth

who insist on a sin and a stain on your virtue

for writing and writhing in stills that won't hurt you

in springs and in flings and in rings like a hearse

hewn in hackneyed hickory shag verse.

Wigwam, a womb, a warm place pleading psalm

where a body lies still to be christened, embalmed...

internment I wait, and wait, for a tourniquet

reeling, risking, rollicking, riveted.

Please stop the bleeding and tell me its you

please stop the hiding and tell me what's true.

Lioness, lioness bring all to swift right

lioness, lioness strike surely tonight.