inside sleep

the fabric rolls from my mouth
whipping up smoke arms and feet
lapping up inside your long walking legs
to the baby

insignia short-hand
inside the coils of shredding wire
two, you should have asked me

children, really

“kids who think love matters”

the wire of knives
cutting cattle who wander
into the red valley
are chastened

i see the two rows of guns
howling contraptions
ripping voices

shoot friends
remove cowards
wipe the sky of lesser men
a huge foot kicks the horizon clean

now, i’m going to light up a lonely fire
we will hide here in pelvis rules
safe from any challenge
or disagreement
in deep trees

the ammunition is unwarranted shame
the gun is prejudiced
mechanicals

align to your local god:

fascists smell like daisies
fascists smell like machines

the huge guns rolled along
green feet stagger
fists raised
in defeat

in a camp

young face asks me now
“rabbi, among the skulls,
can we love?”

the metal snakes
that reach and leak poison
unleashed to my neck-veins and lungs

gagging, i profess

“a moment not loving is wasted”

the fire cuts us apart
hearts explode
lions

Text and Images © Andrew Auten – All Rights Reserved