______________________________________________________________
    
      
     -- word biscuit --
    
            -- bleeding for love edition (valentine's) --
    
                                          02-14-97 - ray heinrich
    ______________________________________________________________

    no matter how you cut it, it's still love.
    -ray



        < falling through glass >
        
        i never thought
        we'd get this romantic
        as the sharp pieces slice neatly
        making clean cuts
        we are amazed 
        by our red sheets flowing after us
        by our hands 
        still holding
        our hands
        still holding
        some hope 
        of us
        continuing
        as we continue 
        falling through glass
        
              - - -





          < adultery >
    
    your breasts were just the right size
    just the right brown
    for the light 
    one window away
    balanced
    between the two parts of the day
    and our love
    innocent 
    but only to us
    and they 
    could always be waiting outside
    but not in this room
    where two months rent
    was more than enough
    for eternal love
    for your breasts
    so warm in my hands
    your breasts
    that sucked firm in my mouth
    and the constant surprise
    of your thin sweet milk
    as his baby
    slept quietly beside us
    
            - - -





        < true love  1 2 3 >


        #1  < together >

        here we are
                
        my limbs 
        bound to yours
        with packing tape
                
        the fiberglass filaments
        cutting into us

        feeling
        the slippery warmth 
        of blood
                
        waiting
        for the numbness
        to relieve

               - - -


         #2  < science >

        pressing the shock button
        
        pulling the food cord

        crawling
        in the maze
        of your body

        again and again
        (for statistical significance)
                
        but never
        agreeing
        on the pain
        or the orgasm

               - - -


         #3  < to the point >

        writing directly
        on myself
        captures the feeling

        but the knife is dull

        writing directly 
        on you
        my poem reaches
        from lip to breast

        now
        my knife is sharp

              - - -




      
     < wounded boys >
    
    some of us
    were wounded boys
    in the late 70's 
    and we
    were wounded boys
    in the late 70's
    nothing special
    not like
    all the blood 
    that flowed in viet nam
    it was just 
    our little wounds
    like tiny saints
    we were only good
    for decoration
    and Eric 
    and i can use your real name now
    was naive enough
    was brave enough
    to show our love
    and we
    we told you not to
    told you
    that you would be denied
    not just by judas
    but the rest of us
    as well
    
          - - -



  
        < walking on bones >
        
        after days of old words
        you use my knife
        as a joke 
        and we are surprised
        at how red the blood is
        and how fast it dries 
        around the edges of
        each drop
        and how it feels 
        like the start 
        of an orgasm
        entangled
        by all the red 
        of this passion
        so close
        to how we began
        
            - - -



     
               < Broken glass >
        
        I am still a little mad at you and
        i lift your head and kiss your lips
        and they taste of blood and the
        glass is broken over the floor and
        shines from some light but it's
        dark in here and classical guitars
        are coming through the window are
        echoing their passion from years
        ago but it feels like here those
        notes and all this glass and all
        the soft parts of us that need to
        be gathered up and might as well be
        collected in the stanzas of some
        tragically romantic song because at
        least that wouldn't make us seem so
        small left here in our mess smeared
        with each other unable to clean it up.
        
                    - - -




           < a few hours later > 

    
    "you were the first woman to notice"

        this, while looking at the first man
        
        and then 
        a few hours later 
    
    "looking in mirrors when i was young" 
    "i am scared to look in mirrors"

        he said this into a recorder 
        while looking out the window
    
    "i love you"

        these words are bleached out
    
        and another few hours pass
    
    "when i came home, they were gone"

        watching you leave
        watching you walk 
        along the road ahead of me

    "where did all this blood come from?"    

        it was now a few hours later
    

                 - - -


    
     < tomato and nightshade >
    
    cause you thought
    that the tomato sauce
    would keep its distance
    would be helpful
    benign
    but what were you thinking?
    expecting from
    hot-blooded tomato sauce
    a direct relative
    of the deadly nightshade
    and the nightshade's tomatoes 
    are small and green
    and you should not eat them
    and i thought that you 
    were some fine tomato
    i thought i tasted your red
    or saw it
    but it was
    small 
    and green
    and given to envy
    and i 
    am given to envy 
    am given to mistaking
    your small green fruits as well
    i ate them
    and was transported 
    to what i'd wished of 
    whirling planets and stars
    hotter than i could stand
    inside you
    was hotter than i could stand
    i mistook
    the tomato for the nightshade
    i may have died
    but still 
    you smile at me
    
      - - - 
    
                




        
      < the red heart and the silver heart >
        
        
        the red heart and the silver heart
        the first
        filled with blood
        the second
        with the lightness of clouds
        
        the red heart
        a sharp knife
        swings at your finger
        never mind who
        (maybe your other hand)
        but the steel inside you
        stops the knife
        with the skin split
        and the blood waits
        and the two sides of flesh
        are translucent
        and the bone at the bottom
        is white and gray
        and then the blood comes
        to relieve this paleness
        to give it life
        flowing easily
        warmly
        thickly
        brightly
        but later 
        it is almost black
        
        the red heart 
        filled with blood
        the silver
        as thin as breath
        watch a tree
        throw itself against the sky
        the silver heart believes
        the tree
        is the forked tongue
        of some creature
        buried
        beneath the earth
        licking the air
        getting a taste of the sun
        and the red
        sees only blood
        
        the red heart and the silver heart
        on quiet nights
        hear each other
        beating between their own beats
        hearing the voice of the other
        hearing the voice of blood
        hearing the voice of air
        and between the beats of both
        hear
        the continents
        miles down
        rubbing rock against rock
        singing with their heat
        miles and miles down
        
        the red heart and the silver heart
        keep slivers of consciousness
        magic
        like the rocks are magic
        living in the weather 
        that comes from the sun
        and at night
        the red goes on
        the heart filled with blood
        filled with the brilliant blood goes on
        but the silver heart must rest
        from writing down the story
        from whole pages of hands
        needing eyes
        and much is missed
        but the silver heart must rest
        
        the red heart swells
        again with blood
        again with temples and sacrifice
        of black obsidian blades
        striking down to stone
        with only a million ribs between
        the red heart fills 
        and empties many times
        and drinks it all as food and still is hungry
        while the silver sleeps
        
        the red heart and the silver heart
        read the list of names
        and they are always finding more
        engraved in walls
        printed in books
        and the names they roll
        roll from the silver
        roll
        into the red
        and all the names
        yours too
        the red devours
        
            - -





           < slow fuck >
        
        sweet center
        sweet lips
        i push my tongue into
        if you expect
        some young 
        stretched body barely twenty
        you must maybe 
        be the same
        but i
        know all about my mate
        refined 
        for twenty years
        the smallest twitch
        is greeted
        by the right lick
        that eases 
        past the thrill 
        of virgin blood
        of new lust
        like the difference
        of hard chairs
        and sofas
        i know
        so much of you
        know you to the last split second
        and while jumping off the bridge 
        is fine
        we smile
        and continue
        our 
        slow 
        fuck
        
             - - -  



    _______________________________________________________________

      if you know someone (yourself too) who would like to get
      word biscuit irregularly (of course it's free), just send 
      me an email saying something like yes.  

      and all this stuff is copyright 1996 & 1997 by ray 
      heinrich and the free state of dogs.  

      you have my permission to copy and post this issue of word 
      biscuit so long as you obtain no commericial or barter 
      considerations in exchange for such copies, it's not part 
      of any pro-republican campaign literature, and you include:
 
      "copyright 1996 & 1997 ray heinrich, comments welcome, send 
       to: ray@scribbledyne.com and i'm not wearing any pants"
    _______________________________________________________________
                                end


 

back