From ‘‘Pericoloso Sporgersi’’
JOYCE MANSOUR

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Naked

I float among the wreckage with steel mustaches

Rusted with interrupted
dreams

By the sea’s soft ululation Naked

I pursue the waves of light Running on the sand strewn with white skulls Speechless

I hover over the abyss

The heavy jelly which is the sea Weighs on my body

Legendary monsters with piano mouths Lounge about in the shadow’s gulfs

Naked

I am sleeping

Look I’m disgusted with men

Their prayers their manes

Their faith their ways Enough of their overwhelming virtues Dressed in briefs

I’ve had enough of their carcasses

Bless me mad light

bright on the heavenly peaks

I long to be empty once more like the peaceful eye Of insomnia

I long to be a star once more

I will swim towards you

Across deep space Borderless Acid like a rosebud

I will find you a man with no restraint Thin
swallowed up in garbage Saint of the last moment

And you will make of me Your bed and your bread Your Jerusalem

You don’t know my night face

My eyes like horses mad for space

My mouth striped with unknown blood

My skin

My fingers guideposts pearled with pleasure

Will guide your lashes towards my ears

my shoulderblades Towards the open countryside of my flesh

The bleachers of my ribs draw in at the idea

That your voice could fill

my throat That your eyes could smile

You don’t know the pallor of my shoulders

At night

When the hallucinating flames of nightmares call for silence

And when the soft walls of reality embrace each other

You don’t know that the perfumes of my days are dying on my tongue

When the crafty ones come with their knives adrift

When I plunge into the mud of night