On the Rainbow

Tennessee sucked me knee-deep in the boiling mud
When I smoked the juice in my eyes and ran
Into the arms of the bile-stained lights,
Heaving over their resident moths all eyes-wide;
Do you know how good it feels to flutter?

A million little teeth and a thousand little mouths cry out
And I wish I could shoot the clouds with a southern pistol;
Their silver linings lasso around us like God’s white ribbon,
Weary of our sagging flesh and how we give blowjobs to angels.
We can climb the rainbows, but can we stop falling down?

How can God blame the little sisters trying on her dresses—
Who cannot know the finger-fucking, lip sucking taste
Of flesh inside bodies inside cars inside mountains
All inside the hair-sprayed curls of our big sister;
Can’t I just try on your dress?

The void sits in our stomachs like a frowning tumor
As the mud crawls back up our legs to the sky.
On the rainbow we forget our names and the nightmares
Like an endless film on the backs of our skulls;
What if we are just God’s bad dreams?

CARRIE-LYNNE DAVIS COPYRIGHT 2009