Transparent Tap

Loose warm oil slips 
below your temple and drips 
from the chin like resin 
i taste salted dough

taxis trumpet through windows
our bath dinned when oprah 
asked him about her 
and she about he 
until you rinsed lather 
into my eyes as i cupped 
and made it squeak
the basin is stopped 
and water rose
in 17th story rust 
bath oil rose water and ivory 
dimples your back

tiles swamped overflow sauna
towels thick in corners
drying you to me

stiff brushed pumice 
soggy cuticles 
spider hair stuck 
in the slow drain

you run to watch and drip 
i track nudity to couch 
propped feet on coffee table
you press lotion from pump 
and smooth thighs sticky

i scrape blades against 
legs leaving strung shark drum

i suck on a toe tasting polish
hair eyes nose mouth ears neck
shoulders breasts elbows stomach
hips pubis thighs knees calves
feet toes i suck fingernail blood
ravines and i rise to eat jell-o

you smoke ashes fall 
leaving carpet craters
i swallow milk 
throwing grapes 
gaping mouth
pink tongue 
green and red 
marbles splatter carpet

pheromone & funk
i sit and milk dribbles 
not our room 
feel grapes in toes 
bugs slick under instep 
milk dribbles

bowl of glassy jell-o 
orange yellow red 
in mouth between 
teeth onto lap with laughing
green smile blue grin 
red from nose and cough 
blow to back
kiss smears paste slime string frog 
ear tooth tongue 
jaundice yellow
flushed redden color

you touch my knee grime in
nails like claws holding ruby
crystal soft and porous

urination in basin floating
flotsam and paper butt some
ashes stain trail to drainage
swirling gurgle and you saw me
sitting reading the post

you stand
colored with free-form jelly 
stuck to bath and dirty nails

pouring gin & tonic 
some lime
"don't drink it sans lime"
swirling ice clink bottles
small clear glass

peel oranges
and spitting pits onto floor
you were virginal before now
not sticky but before 
when where 
why not as is not bad 
very good in fact damn this, 
throwing newspaper crumpled 
stand wipe
your turn 
no secret indiscretion

paper planes from floor 17 
bad down draft spiraling to 
wet street
under trumpeting taxi to 
times square 42nd street pimp
prostate blue balls yes i understand
why you didn't touch me this is
new york and we might carry the
city's legacy

i need some scotch
give me it straight no ice until
you know the results and we can
consume and resume

where is the god-damn light switch 
how do you turn out these lights 
how do you turn up the heat in this place
don't flush the toilet while i'm taking
a fucking shower 
there isn't water enough
for god's sake

winter black jeans dry
on the radiator blue too 
panties sizzle mentors scream

i slip on grape smuckers jelly 
wouldn't slip on peanut butter 
none of that.

 

©1993 Chris Abraham