Kudra Delaney
Seven Cities
half-colored genuine
me but
him
a milkface
This one's too dark "My
skin's not that dark."
We watch the little things you do.
a mama's sordid recipe,
the whiskey
the rice
in stomache, claus
eat the bird
sticky throat
an easy
one.
1 iscratchmyhead
the feathers scatter your bedsheets
2 yourfingersitch
to scale my jawline
you scratch your head
you, a
frigid & quiet, deviant
my stupid little anker
i know she's kind of spaced like
your drunk mama,
she's nervous. This
pigment's too dark
"you must be
hiding the cream
behind your pretty back" -
just milk
tinybitsoured
from
German girls;
"Inkblot," you've
sheltered me
such as mamas
who wear milk like medals;
whiteheart, as sir,
to still body
lay. (Leech,)
so lucky she didn't die at twenty.
3 "heheldherhand"
down a dark trail walking
seen the highway lights
following an ugly noise
"I don't trust these woods,
baby -
can I think of you like that?"
love
to see
your teeth
4 i'dneverridmy-selfofyou
I know
you'd
look at
my feet&
plum-paint on long toes
(they're skinny,)
down up and down
to polished oak, paint
smeared. The song
was rambling a
lunatic - you
are him,he is
my hunter-friend,we scale
fat trees, wide grass, great
spaces between
love
and sickness.
my
body was
&youhateyour
habits.
5 we'dquit-thepipe
and lying to friends,
rolled cigarettes,
cheap and
romantic,
together.
This past year has been grainy,
an unbearable dream, but
I don't sleep, and
I'm not awake.
6 youshowercoldbeforesleep
I leave my feathers on your bed
the sky is telling a tale
7 istandintherain
"she named seven gods
one for each year
your face, crescent-shaped
has seen in moonlight
a dance."
your body sways,
my legs stumble
more
clumsily
than my words.