I Saw I Dreamt Two Men

I saw I dreamt Two men hoisted hung up not American the rope Not closed on their breathing But this rope tied them spine to spine somehow Suspended From the mood of a tree not American they were African Ugandan Nigerian Without a license a right to touch The sin their touching incites And I heard their names called out Revision Or Die and You Must Repent And Forget the Lie you Lily-Boys you Faggots Called up from the mob Of their mothers their fathers With Christ in the blood who had Christ in the blood Who sung out “Abide with Me” This was my eyes’ closed-eyed vision This is what a darkness makes And how did I move from that distance to intimacy So close I could see The four soles of their feet so close I was kneeled Could lick Those feet as if I was because I became The fire who abided I saw that I dreamt Their black skin made blacker by my feeding I thought Christ Why did I think Their black skin tipped blacker by this American Feeding but just one shot up A cry African it was American O Lord abide with me It was human lusty flat You had to be in the hollow of it to taste it You had to see how in such lack Invention takes hold They say some dreams come in the moment Of waking Stitched because daylight likes a story That some dreams are extensions Of an itch Thief-walking the coral of the brain I say But I did feel that one blue mouth blow out As I felt The mood of that tree As I saw the other turn away apart stay with silence I stayed with southern silence