bleeding fish

To love you was to see a bleeding fish

to say I do not trust you but here is my heart

watch you sling it around your shoulders

a new petticoat for the winter ahead

To leave you was to lay lies in the mouth of my soul

to argue with my elephant heart

watch you turn and collect your next woman

a new bonny prize for your mantle of sorrow

To live without you is to climb out of the earth

to pull a sogging lung from the salty sea

watch you live circular and frustrated

there must be a new life on the other side of this