King Sailor Lyrics

In the vestibules of the crypts of New Orleans

The spirits mill about

Consulting the swirls of marble

Like the scrolls

Of petrified smartphones

The soot of King Sailor enters their nostrils

His bier of ultramarine

And gold-green mind's eyes of peacock fronds

Was doused with gasoline

And spun out a back-orange cloud

Carrying news of springs

And then they can breathe

And the drum calls them back

To dance in human skin

The feeling of sinking the mass

Of abdomens

Between spread legs

The eon-creating position

Of squatting, then shelving in and pulling away

Once I held the cradle of a pelvis

Up to rain, says one

As his eyes flutter shut

Just as though this saying

Were enough to stir the rhythm of the name of his beloved

I recall the chilled lines of water

Hugging the insides of my arms

My thrilled skin

And flooded the traffic circles of my chest

And me a tiny sailor in a small boat drifting in and out

The prow of my dory poking

The black rooms of shadows cast from roots

Dangling from the banks of so many ovals