A Wedding or... (feat. Ted Hearne)

A Wedding, or What We Unlearned from Descartes

Beloved, last night I doused us in good bourbon,

struck a match between our teeth, slid the lit head

lip to chest, throat zippered open and spilling.

Our union demands a sacrifice. Take my masks—

my wretched, immaculate children. Sharp smiles

bored with cavities. Braids thick with hair

slashed off lovers as they slept. The masks grew limbs

and danced, so last night, to the fire—plank pushed,

cackling as they bubbled and split. Then dreamless dark.

Then mercy, somehow, morning reached for me.

Sun found us swaddled in sweat-through sheets—

gauze and salve while night wore off. O body,

always healing despite me. O body, twin spy

tasked against my plot to rush the dying,

guardian of the next world’s sweets, yes,

I’ll lick this salt. Yes, I’ll wait our turn

because today we hold hands, mother

each other, bathe in warm coconut oil.

Our union, our long baptism. O body,

all I forced you to know of thirst. Yes

body, you are owed a whole lake. Yes

body, I’ll kiss our wrists, hold them

to our ears and spend our days

losing to the waves.