If I ever went public

It would be arduous and ugly

My mouth an open wound that

You rub salt into

You the recipient You the reverential You

The everlasting villain and me

Eventual venison in crosshairs 

My eyes were never anything

To write home about but I see

From my cracked chest yarrow blossomed 

My pursed lips a cowslip key 

Heaven and grace and God do you see

My cursed face The face that got me 

Into all of this The face that launched warships The face

I want gone God did you give me this or did I earn it

Your gifts in the weirdest wrapping paper

Abandoning teardrops at bus stops 

Perennial in the Asphodel Meadows

My mouth a landscape

With no horizon line but

If I ever went public it would be pure as peonies 

A lighthouse A beacon A warning 

Beware ye whose violets remain intact

Your ax made of my tree 

Somewhere a deer munches nettle and

Joins me in the Meadows 

If I ever went public they would know

My mouth a chameleon that mimics smiles 

If persistence is my keeper then where

Do I put this petunia down What can

Carry its weight without crushing it

God I’m crushing it You would be proud

Put me back in Coach I’ve got it in me do You see

I made Meadows with forget-me-nots I’m like if

Eve wasn’t a woman and instead an admonition 

If I ever went public I could never go back

I’m all oleander and spit venom 

Stripped flesh hanging from my antlers

Prey animal with a body count

But if I ever went public 

It wouldn’t be violent

I’d throw away my belladonna bouquet 

Flee the Meadows

Cry and scream at bus stops 

Pray for Heaven and grace and God

I could really do without this face