AMERICAN LOVE SONG: OMAHA NEBRASKA by Brionne Janae

~for Will Brown

because you were beautiful and black with lips like pin cushions
and just as soft   because you were made to be pierced
to be torn apart to be a mooring for desire and how else
could I touch you   could I unwrap your figure   pull the meat
from parchment   how else could I devour  
christ how could I help but love and want you
want you begging at my feet   want you bound splayed for pleasure
who wouldn’t want to pleasure you and if not pleasure
then provoke and if not provoke then to watch you writhe
watch you dance at the stake my wanton messiah my sweet
and tender love   how could I look on the curve of your neck
the muscles’ ripple    the veins’ throb beneath the skin   
without itching for the noose   and because I wanted
to be near you and the world demanded I give in return
and because I couldn’t give you joy and it’d hurt too much to give you peace
and because all I had for you was a wound   a love mark dark
as the valleys of the moon   and because who wouldn’t give anything
to be near you   to watch the sweat gather and glisten like diamonds
to study the pink of your gums as you cry out for mercy
to watch you swell and open   to bathe in the heat radiating from your bones
like the halo of a long suffering saint   how could I not breathe
you in   your flesh fast becoming incense becoming a thick holy smoke
how could I not pass across your form almost daring
to lean down   to kiss