I. We hung tinsel stars

Upon the gallows of our mouths

In their thistle fedoras

And my phosphoric lighters

Infiltrated your ashtray womb

Among the phantoms of cocottes

Who plotted to become nuns,

Heaving as if unleavened insomnia

Trickling into cots of POWs

II. Infinitesimal night emancipating

Our silhouettes atop the chalky path

Belfries penetrating virgin skies

Droplets of a wine thrice drank

Once by a rosy infant of the bordello

Once by a vain king of rooks, pawns

Once by a lamplighter

Who draped the world in blood

And smeared acid across

Dew-smattered secrets

III. Diadem of windowpanes

Bruise maiden vending pleated sofas

Barefoot in cherry-cola’s ridges

With a dozen planetary eyes

And a torn heart

Undulating as a carillon;

On its bracing hips

Clusters of servile ravens

Marooned within centipede bowties

IV. Shipwrecks of hearts

MDNA walleyes, gills of euphoria

Capsizing into my bitter Americano

Encircled by a quartered earthenware seawall

The key of B reeks of brine

Your net of kisses cannot

Encapsulate my soul’s shadowy train

We are but Davids, inky blood

Our arms: foamy anvils

A hymn of wells

Submerges the vagrant stars

Without doors, windows

But with an eternity of padlocks

Drawn from firebirds, parasols, consciences