Dancers are mad spinning tops teetering 

on the edge of wooden cliffs, blood-rushing 

sacrificial marionettes, hypnotic birds 

flying into themselves.

 

Black & white Marlene Dietrich dolphin

in a satin waterfall, sunhair sensual angel.

 

There is a movie trapped in her body

& midnight rolls in ringlets around her shoulders.

She swallowed an hourglass when she was young 

and now she has the body of a woman 

and the arms of zebras.

 

She is the volcano and the aftermath

dark explosion ocean with blood sand.

China doll siren in a red torture chamber.

 

She stared at a cat too long when she was a girl 

and it gave her those lovely eyes.

Her body is made of mountains and rivers 

and her heart is a clock full of honey.

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From The Opulence Of Invention. Copyright © 2018 E. P. Mattson, All Rights Reserved.