The Moral Kicks In

After the first course, your corsage         flatlines into beautiful convulsions          It sprouts wings, thorns, claws its way up your arm to swallow you goosebump          by goosebump          There is a moment when resurrection devours the most devout heart          Deep blue           the ink pen veins blow up behind my eyes        Patron saint of stifling anger on the rocks        Patron saint of politely            melting into this tomato        soup a spoonful at a time & we speak        in fortune cookie all night               The next dish, a ventilator       An IV        dripping into something already dead       I order two specials Make the pain remind you of the one who signed your tiny gashes today A struggling creek, your tongue wriggles out from the baby's         breath to ask Were we ever anything more than    echolocation Patron saint of the meteor that falls from the sky:                          forgiven, eventually, easily