wait oh wait wait a minute mr. postman



a vial arrived this morning via UPS



sitting just outside my door

a huge cardboard box filled with styrofoam peanuts

contained a much smaller cardboard box

which contained a cheap jewelry box



which held a green glass vial the size of an index finger

filled with some indeterminate liquid

and corked

with a black rubber stopper



I uncorked it right away and held it under my nose



took a deep whiff



minute, white-cold, razor quick hands

raced like liquid ice

up

my sinus



to churn and clasp,

grasping



at the buried nerve stalks,

the backs of my

eyes



Christ, I thought,

tossing the contents of the vial

down my throat

like the shot

it was



now, hours later,

sitting on my roof

under magenta sky,

my skin's

gone dark and spiny

as the stem

of a rose bush



reptilian dusk bloom



emanation



blood-rose ring

around my gold,



slitted pupils,



oh, I am chill.



Baal's lost vodka,

de-routed,

found,



trumps the blood



I am bittersweet

blood god blossom



in the age of rage, death and fire