UNDERSTANDING HEAVY METAL by W. Todd Kaneko

Begin with a savage cry,
                                                        a spray of cardinals
            gouting gorgeous
            from gut to tonsil,
                                                        from a boy’s lips,
glossed in crimson & fire—
                                                        teen angst dashed by
            bat wings, mouthfuls
            of graveyard sugar,
                                                        bruise shine & stars—
in leather & choke chain,
                                                        a boy can separate into
            curses a man will one day
            remember spitting—
                                                        seductive viscera
for a song’s high-pitched wail
                                                        because he doesn’t know
            the difference between
            rapture & clumsy sex,
                                                        survival & murder
wavering amidst the tremolo
                                                        in which one dark bird,
            plummeting to earth
            with all that chemistry
                                                        panicking inside him, shrieks
in the Devil’s tongue & wishes
                                                        for colorful plumage
            marking his surrender
            to the cemetery lawn
                                                        or a lovelier darkness
for blood & guitar solo & blood