Tipping the Scales

Gavel me to order
the jury's been picked like
old fruit unvined, a 2 finger solution
stronger than the mind

Blessed as a lamb
sutured with Sun
a New Year bloodletting
born ugly as oil

Crack my skull
where the bones meet most
i’m eggshell thin
and black with ash
yet suckling hard
on falling leaves
and the inside of God's wrists

Don't call me vampire
don't wear me like a mask
don't disease me
into doctoring your freshest wounds
with salt again

a leech-learned lesson
leaning against my
better judgment
a spark at the gas pump
and the whole thing may blow

Arcane agitation will come
polishing stones
and clearing our names
all the sonnets of a sentinel
rusting in smoke-filled rain

the priest wears judge robes tonight

hands me down
hand-me-downs

a janky justice
made wholer than hell

I drew prison bars all over my arms
before I knew
what keys could be
warm blooded enough
to know the difference
between a crime and
a circumstance

clamp down each jaw
that winces when wondering
which of us will leave first
die first
be wrong first

call your witnesses
those wolves & witches
that spray your name
slobbered and slick
to say some songs
supposed to sell
the best brands of innocence
to the least of us

as if I object
in silent measures
every beat a rest
every word a moaned mirage
 a dreamdust tongue-clung,
undone homespun
enigmas making mockery
of boring sorcery

a sustained claim
columned and insane
envisions us all
blinded with shame
all the men of means
rebuilding me
from old movie scenes
and their own worst dreams

Deliberately describe how
the night breaks down
around you
when skin deems sin endearing
when screams don't mean
what you think they mean

the stepping stones
become the sentence
stolen from poets of
prescient  Pompei
staring through frozen eyelids
into a split screen future history
we kept looking back
too hard to ever see

without fail
without bail

I'm setting myself free