Skin In This Game

where is your skin in this game?
the lines of battle are drawn
archers, poised, bows taut
ready to pierce
will you bleed when they release
their fury?
or will every arrow
miss you?
miraculous!
as if their flinted vectors
had no mind to harm
you
in the first place

where is your skin in this game?
where are your scabs and bruises?
where are your teardrops in the dirt
from where they knocked you down?
where are your footsteps in that blood earth
proving to the whole world
that you got up again and
marched
on?

what do you stand to lose?
what have you brought into our temple
ready to lay at the altar
willing to see burnt?

if they threatened your home
                             your lover
                             your money
                             your babies
                             your intellect
                             your freedom
would you run?

are your hands chained to ours
when they throw us
into the cargo hold of oppression?
do you go with us to hell
when we are damned to meet
the blue-eyed devil?
when they force themselves upon us,
do you know how to stitch us up
with the same tenderness and rage
as if it were your own body
they tore open?
how real do you wanna get, friend?

I know what you believe
I know what you envision
I see you embrace it all in rebel's love

But tell me -- where's your skin in this game?

white house

white house, farm and grave
you smell of ghosts, withering
footsteps of mind lost.

You Believe In Beauty

standing in your apartment
chaos shredded, fractal on the floor
you can hear the mold
whispering from behind the bookshelf
laden with Kerouac
                  whiskey
                  and Parliaments
a scent
pungent, signature
bearing witness to emphysema nights alone
and a few too many
in the company of
strange thighs, spread eagle, unwashed sheets.

but when you put your hands
on my body
eyes locked with mine
mouth nestling into the
most intimate divet in my neck
I know--
you believe in beauty.

you believe with kicking, screaming resilience
it is the greater whole you sum to be true
and you fight
your way back to it
with equal parts rage
and tenderness.

you believe in beauty
you know beauty
and no matter how hard
you try
you can't hide that
from me
anymore.