BEYOND CULPABILITY

By Luna Brown

I saw your skin constrict like a snake,

Making me believe

In places existing far beyond culpability.

A vulnerable witness

To an impossible crime,

Responsibility diminished

In the time it takes for a jackal to wipe his jaws.

Evidence crawling with meticulous legs,

Stains bleached

With the moon’s unreliable fullness.

Appetite carefully wrapped

In sinewed silk,

Venomous applause

Inviting the thrill of an encore.

Sincerity slides from arctic lips,

Tying slip knots

In my severed tongue.

Lungs filling with charcoal paralysis,

Molasses glazed hope

Splayed awkwardly

Like the fractured leg of an elk.

Tarnished blood amid saline sins,

Unfinished business

Hailing execution

On a clean chameleon slate.

A disheveled deer in a sterile abyss,

Crucified within a clearing

Surrounded by hawthorn’s curse.

Hateful sentiment

Leaning close to a naked shoulder,

A decorative shawl

Relying on winter’s cold hiss.

Yet something in the fabric was missing,

Like a wolf with no teeth

Choking on a defiant scapular.

I imagine the rapture you once felt,

When the moon sacrificed herself

For the death of a tall poppy,

But you never saw her face

Smiling at your ribs,

Glistening like those of a beached whale

Before the sun swallowed you whole.

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