Burnt Offering

you’ve dimmed me to the very last drop,
but i’ve still got enough battery
for one last bender, one last hoorah
to ease my busted verbosity.
Still: one last bit to bind us, bend us
before the sun goes out, blasting blind
at the birth of the next big bang. Boom.
just like that, an instant between thumb
and middle finger, snapped: like limbs, like
gum, like firecrackers, like the moon.
above all this, a burst of bold beat
of what I thought was a winged thing perched,
pre-flight and not enough for lift off.
if you could go back to the moment
of truth, what would your bones offer up
as sacrifice? all this time you’ve
been boring holes just beneath the bust
bleeding me a ribbed corset of blood.


Laurin DeChae