Hazardous Youth Well Spent

Ancient husbandry, this approach and adaptation
the only choice for the author, the reader,
those changes demanding to be fed.

Dennis put one down my shirt when I was 8
and I never got it out
some invertebrate maw mindlessly nibbling -
I’m quite sure generations now gorge
on the middle aged middle.

And the flesh lover saliva in me,
left over from that bite I took as I walked home after school,
keeps me hungry for blood
because my own is pale and boils when I’m luteal.

Then I got stung at the shore embracing ghostly tendrils
which seemed like a good idea at the time,
till screams on the sand turned my white wings red
and left a cute little scar.

Hot winds in the back seat, we drove, brother slept,
and I watched my fingers flow up down the empty wave surrounding the car.
Gathered wild and screaming in my palm – I swallowed her, without permission,

and she’s made me pay,
as a black tempest
that only the blameless can tame.