Unforgiven

The tide fits snug up against
the seawall
              like a rip of death-defying architecture
as I space out inside
                              a scribble of sand on concrete
              here in the fog where
                                                seagulls howl like coyotes

Just another notch in the luminous
pearl necklace
              that hangs around the neck of slow time
while beneath the skin of
                              euphoric innuendo
              the skeleton of a smile falls apart

              but those eyes like fists of tequila
                                                lifted in the
                              blast & drizzle of all that we can
                                                                never know
              thick with tears & missed apppointments
                              peruse the index of what’s left unsaid

like an illegible name scrawled upon a
                              crooked cross at a makeshift
              roadside shrine
swallowed up by pinwheel blossoms & silver
                              weeds eaten by forgetfulness

to emulate & deny
              as the wind tunes the rusted
palm trees rocking in the cut
                              where I confess to every
              dovetail scam the heart can devise