Arsenic Lobster poetry journal        Issue Six   2004
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Incarceration
Dennis Saleh

Digger wouldn’t eat he’d roll and unroll
his sleeve and the tattoo blinked like an eye
the reaper, the reaper’s scythe, “Fresno”

Digger said the sun was like a thumb
that pressed him into the gravel yard
so he was pinned and held for hours

A guy Digger knew cut out a man’s heart
(he’s a lover at night on his knees)
Nobody knew why he did it
(he conducts a rite hooded in a bag)

Plain cocksuckers, ones who fall in love
and this one like a priest emptying

Digger talked about Mr. Rat, Johnny Motel
grudges, intrigues in the corridors
currents, an eddy, then someone gone

In the movie room a row of laps
a knife passed along hand to hand
Digger held it
silver rat snake umbilical cord
A man stopped it
covered his stomach like a kiss
in the dark embrace, in the lights

About Dennis Saleh

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