“Sestina for Eve” by Mike Tucker

She’s trading apples for Eden these days

on those gray streets where her drizzle does run

so close to the hot foul breath of the beast

dripping but softly with flowers his words

delirium zebra stripe fire in her eyes

blindly we swallow the secrets of stars

 

And you kept whispering, whispering stars

cross eyed with pleasure sweet halcyon days

Lucifer’s fallen right into your eyes

chin up adam, we sure had a good run:

I spent much of my life wrestling with words

stuck in this garden between angel and beast

 

What can I give up this lent to the beast?

fig leaves, sins and your pocketful of stars

but I could not answer with naked words

barefoot beautiful oblivion days

faster now faster with fireflies she’ll run

headlong straight for the bright whites of your eyes

 

Open them open them open your eyes

all wrapped up in furry blankets of beast

kick off your shoes those wet colors will run

quicksilver fish in gutters full of stars

fall down in these last days our lost daze

when I fell in love completely with words

 

And you went to war so fiercely with words

aiming spoken arrows right at my eyes

foxhunts with hot girls- I’m almost there days

far past garden gates they call me the beast

flung down from heaven in a rain of stars

moonlight and mercury my winged heels run

 

Into this myth I will dive swim and run

scapegoat hanging on the cross of your words

she’s penetrating my heart full of stars

I’m far beyond gone with that look in your eyes

slaughter me slaughter me slaughter this beast

bring me forbidden fruit or say goodbye days

 

We run unmasked past serpents’ crystal eyes

where words just like honey slay the hidden beast

and stars burn for you on eve’s snake charming days