“Beneath my Steely Exterior Lies a Fragile Vulture”

“Beneath my Steely Exterior Lies a Fragile Vulture”

When we growl when we drool

once I saw death in the buffalo of a nickel

to be beaten with a pillowcase of kisses

those lips eloping vampire phantoms

beneath easy street, behemoth of leotard

fanned evenings, easy vigils

we were doing the Charleston

where gods of skeletons feel

in squeals of murderous

let your eyes adjust

there’s murder in the bakery

half-smiles, lines out of windows

daft shrubbery, pruning leers

licking used bandaids,

brandishing this cold and elder place

where recipes and spells rain down

the wisdom of the forgotten

and hailed a taxi made of hail

the wolf costume fits

these jaws: the iron of you.

Tags: beneath my Steely Exterior Lies a Fragile Vulture, Nicholaus Patnaude, poem, poetry