I'll keep you in the bell jar,
High upon the shelf
I'll take you down
& look at you
My tiny, precious self.
Aside the pickled fetus
Hard by the hoodoo charms
The bloated eyes
& wrinkled guise
Give a strange alarm.
A knot of salty sinews
Frames your little shrine
I'll pause
To kiss
& worship there
Because I know you're mine.
I've saved your heart
--the choicest part--
I keep it here, instead
So I can taste
The crusty blood
Your ropey veins once bled.
I'll wrap myself inside
Your skin
And slide onto the floor
I'll sit
Squinched in the corner
& whimper
More &
More--
I'll sing a song
To soothe myself
Until I go to bed:
Of fair boudoirs.
& rare grimoires
--a severed, speaking head.
I grapple for your surface
I smudge the tiny jar
My eager breath
Clouds you up--
I can't see where you are!
Have you escaped?
Did you crawl out?
Panic makes me shake--
My fingers crush
The fragile dome
And all your pieces break.
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