Even though I knew it might
kill me,
I bared my lily ankle and the serpent goddess bit me.
I would have done anything to avoid her bite,
But I was weak from running, and death gives birth to life.
Now I revel in her glory, and O her charm!
Slip in at the root, obsidian one,
Until your heavy triangular head rests on mine.
Retract your hood, sink your teeth, draw blood.
Inject me with that buzzing drug.
I am pushed up and up until I am free.
Spiral tight up my leg like an electric vein
That runs through the jugular and pumps out my brain.
Pass my muddy knees leaving me rainbow scales to keep.
Show me the rhythm of what I must be.
I am a pearl moon on a bed of rubies.
You cannot destroy me; I hold oceans of love -
From the bowels of my body, a red coral flood.
Your slick blue umbilicus comes
As no surprise, nor the sting and the venom.
I am swelling and spilling soft white eggs.
If you entangle and strangle my frame,
My cells melt in kaleidoscopic pain,
Only to reform, perfect snowflakes of citrine.
My tongue tastes victory again and again.
I am immune, lithe, clever, ready.
I have twisted out a path on the dry bed of a river,
Crying turquoise tears of unforgiveness.
I have shrivelled in the sand, but the lady is a peeler -
She wraps up her medicine and makes me a healer.
I am her lava, her fire is in me now.
She unzips my ribcage and uncoils my skin.
I remember her warm dark river. I dive in.
Hers is the only love that swallows my pain.
My quicksilver wings unfold in the rain.
I am the hot artery plugged into her centre.
Power slashes through the emerald cave of my heart
To the silent hollow under my ear,
Like some pythagorean phalanx in battle.
I cry out in her satin voice, shake her dry rattle.
I am singing into a keyhole in the earth.
Here is the gorge, the gate where you freeze me.
Yes, lady, I do dare cut your head off cleanly,
To meet your eye and make your mane mine,
And I’ll wear the hissing crown with pride.
I am blinded, but intact as a tailless lizard.
Lying twice-punctured on my riverbed,
I tear the valley apart, a body from a head.
I am not afraid of the dark - I know my way.
My choking sheath drops like night from day.
I am shattering a thousand old mirrors.
Amethyst-hexed, blessed, sexed, fresh,
From end to beginning we circle, phoenix.
This is the diamond-backed mystery:
I am the snake and the snake is me.
I am a thunderbolt of pure sunlight.
Your forked tongue bends the future into past.
You kiss my lips sweetly and then bite me on the arse.
We are one and it never be undone,
Together bound, braided, twisted, woven, spun.
I am forever safe in the storms of change.
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