Hands whose folds and creases
_______spoke not of rail splits or nails
A mouth whose cough sputtered
_______angels into the dust of a long road

I saw women dry his gentle
_______feet with their hair
I saw men covet
_______and beg to know him
______________the salt cries of Gomorrah
_____________________fell from their trembling members

My maidenhead
_______so long since turned to callous
Made supple and loved
_______by his merest glance.
Without this money
_______that feeds us all
Without the bread or laundry
_______I love you
and such love had no precedent
_______in the groping hangnails
______________or gummy fish kisses of boys come of age.

He pressed me to the Joshua trees
_______and sobbed, Don’t you understand?
Understand that I’d die for you
Have traveled a thousand thousand
_______furlongs just to take their
______________punctures to my own gut
____________________________in the stead of yours?

So the lifetime of wretched yesses
xxxxxxxmumbled into boils and leprosy
washed away with eyelashes in my hair
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxslippery fingers feeding me
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxpomegranate and red delicious
lips inserting breath
xxxxxxxso long since wrenched
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxfrom my chest and belly
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxand trapped, angry, purchased womb