Paint Me Black

Untitled.


For a single moment
When your hands came out from behind your back
I was taken by the exquisiteness of colors.


Silent I stood, and you stared back at me
So solemnly
I am
Unfaltering
Unqualified
Impervious
I am ready for you.


One pace and we are face to face
And gazing steadfast into yours I ask you if you love me
Hands trail languid down my arms
And my eyes itch to flutter shut as you
Paint strokes of black duplicity
On the ivory that encompassed me
Slopping from your fingertips
Onto my robe
It drips and drips…
I feel the warmth of you through the thinness
Of the fabric
I see the sparks of static
So I bite my lip and look away and slide it from my skin.


You bend your head to the curve of my throat
To lick lines that reek of wretched concubines
And conceive deep green snakes
That coil ‘round my neck
Arresting a strap of my gown between your teeth you tug it from my flesh
I oblige this request with green dribbling down my collarbone
The round curve of my breast
Until my nightgown is defiled and at last
I slip it off.


Your mouth will press a timid smile
‘Gainst my chest
And I ignite with need to reciprocate
But my hands are seized before I’m able
Arms going limp with the command
And you equivocate with
Eyelashes painting green butterflies and
Kissing rivers ‘cross my shoulders
This is all I understand.


Lazily you drag a hand along my naked back
Five trails of violet in its track
That drip and drip along my spine until my legs melt weak
Violet smells of sweat
And shame, of bed sheets and defeat.
Sinking to my knees I bow my head
Spattered like disease my colors pollute the floor
My canniness is dead
I hear thick paint sucking from your threadbare skin
To mine
And gravely know that to you I shall never disavow
To see the mess at your feet makes you
Magnificent somehow
And when you kneel down before me
I see the white ground spot with          red.


One of your hands now holds my chin
Lifts face to meet those eyes again
Goosebumps rise in response to the
Two quick lines you mark with red,
An X,
Over the thin skin of my heart
I flinch.
Paint hardens, pulls me taut and cracks
It starts to itch
But I cannot look away.


I stare up at you so long my neck soon turns to writhing snakes
And dark eyes burn to glass
My knees ache
I stare up at you so long
‘Till I’ve forgotten right and wrong.
All I keep is a thought
That grows more cryptic as my skin grows hot
It is a sinking premonition that I just might fall apart
With the breaking of your heart


You tilt your head to properly
Admire
My dirty clothes, my dripping skin exposed
And as your face leans slow toward mine
Your poison fills my nose
I am unblinking.
You pull the back of your hand down the side of my face
My skin flares when you
Bury both hands in my hair
And you kiss me on the mouth.
We ignore the drip as
Black paint slides from our lips onto the alabaster floor
My trembling hands dragging in it
I smile onyx on starch white teeth
Convinced that either I’ve gone senseless
Or only love can truly explicate
What is compelling me so breathless


I damn the meager space that you devise between us
When you pitch back an inch to hold my gauzy eyes, your
Fingertips glide down my cheeks, my slackened jaw
New paint crawls from your hands
But I scarcely notice
For you gaze steadfast into mine
And whisper that you love me


Then you rise.
My pupils contract with the light
That pours over your back
And my sight limps along your body from your feet up to your nose
To a face that stays unshaken while paint is
Squished between your toes
And bright blue seeps out of your soles
And I am chilled and watch amazed as
Magnificent blue rivets begin rolling down your arms like
Sparkling veins,
Spewing from the corners of your eyes
And down your face to
Mirror mine
There is an echo of protest from
The hole you made and marked with           X
Before you apologize
And say from now on we must          improvise.