tally

takes the tally
and makes his mark
the fouling driver
hollers and the
hungry hawk
hums

with a brute lash
he
makes her a prisoner
with a knife
to inner thigh
lie still and yield

mine mine mine
he marks -
mine he marks -
marks his mine
tick tick itck
she unmarks and unmarks

singing
in her head's head
a hymn from
a former glorious
field
wandering

and he makes the
the blade thrum
'cross the
chrysalis flesh
pleating it
bleeding her

of her senses
feeling it
retreating her
from her
once upon
a time

when she was
a child and
scudding through a
farmer's pasture
bare legs bending
the blades

a wet wander
wild and
hilly
a stumbling
girl's giggling
elopement

the blade
today is a
tool of the warden
to scowl
a lapsed
girl

lie still lie
to yourself
fly from
the shape
of the sound
in a dark room

tick tick tick
mine mine
tally a penalty
into pliant
skin the color
of sin

momma will
say you've
got a good man
to love you
enough
to fight to
keep you

blundering
bitch
blubbering
braying
beast
bestill

this place
her passage
her way
her forward
her entrance
her real

this man
is no man
is a dagger and
stone and
the power
of a spit
coal

and brandisher
a mulling
percher
ambushing the
ambitions
of the weak

pouring
salt water
into the eyes
of
the souls
of innocence

and she
was lured and
slain
and pinioned
between charm
and will

tick tick tick
for each
transgression
against the
father of
her dark cathedral

she won't look
now she won't
dare; for
it's a frayed
fragile
foiled place

yet:

her lover
does look now
a gentle man
looks
and loves
and lingers

there
where the hawk
once made his
mark
this lover
kisses the place

he loves her
he loves the woman
he loves the flesh
and the marks
he loves the woman
and all her marks

he washes
the walls
of the tallies
with tender fingers
tracing
the lines

that will
not ever be
erased
but he washes
at will because
he loves

and the girl runs
wild in the
farmer's
pasture again
free free
of the tick

tick tick
mine mine
you're mine
no longer mine
not mine
released to a

passionate
lover who
knows this
woman:
he sees her
he knows

he looks
he looks
and sees
and kisses
and loves
her clean