LIKE A ROSE

Your love

is a car wreck
in a suburban paddock

I am a knight
Riding down truck routes
And country byways

My horse is a rat
Gnawing at the
infesting weeds

While I,
an auto repairman,
lift,
from that burnt out shell,
your heart,

which I carry,
across a black sea
in a yacht,
with a mast,

a crucifix

To the City of Silver Light

Where,

locked in a prism of glass,
beside the City mineral vein,
your heart is
Restored

My parents
Begin to feel
the cold shadow
of a woman
crawling the city streets
at dusk

But they,

like City statues,
keep their mouths shut,
For it was they,
Who sent their child out
to bring home
The Woman of Their Dreams

And each night,
In our royal tent,
We devour each other;
like cats,
in the hot desert air,
on my bed,
which is strong,
like oak