MAELSTROM

© 1997, 1999 Clinton Cyril Somerton

Out of your flawless mouth
a storm devours me;
crackling word concentrate
shocks me down
to hug my fractured knees

Your beauty
glares into every
chink in me,
excruciating beams
through each fissure;
the flurry of arrows
betrays the grace of your bow

You made me
privy to your furies,
conferred on me
the honour of your fates,
but you didn’t show your teeth
before the kill;
in ravaged aftermath
cannibal child
serenely pronounces murder
from a dribbling chin

If I felt
your tongue coming
I could have held it
through the maelstrom.