Bahamas

I was on the road 

doing what tobacco doves do  

skidding on sleepy dewy streets 

chasing love on high-tension 

voltage wires 

in lightning storms and thunder 

I pecked at pleasure 

limboing low low 

under barbed fences 

gulping desire in thin thin air 

I was no prisoner dove 

on a flight of fancy  

flouting and flaunting  

a plumage  

of atrophied wings 

I knew the cost of flight 

the craft of steering 

clear of glass 

the geography of mangrove swamps 

the smoldering fires of pine barrens 

I knew the art  

of a sleight of wing 

I was to take off on time 

before the reverse of that wheel 

a game I played several times a day 

Why was I so slow that morning? 

no nails snared in melted tar 

what held me captive a second too long 

as the tire turned  

on my wing? 

I was on the road 

doing what tobacco doves do 

olive bearing trees don’t grow here 

and I wasn’t no messenger 

for Noah 

this me right here inside the ring 

in March April May springing 

from concrete tar sand parading 

passion purple ungodly colours waving 

cores of pink cream orange showing 

my motion to you unsolicited 

in months of dry rain sighing 

ring centre I come to you straight 

shaping vision beyond sugar-in-a-plum 

winding my waist tight in your face 

clinging to your fence I aint shame 

mounting it from rock and gravel 

unhedged hips fall and rise 

spreading limbs all over your wall 

this me now right here outside the ring 

even in June July August fixing 

to catch the colours of your dream playing 

biggety with your emotion working 

up myself round edges of islands cascading 

even when poinciana throw bloodclots unconsoled 

in full seagreen I just keep on coming 

jumping back in the ring I aint shiftin for no one  

limboing under the shade of a dilly tree 

climbing up womantongue and guinep 

wrapping  arms around cerosee vine 

rushing to inventions of a lonesome conchshell 

fixed by tongue-tied conga drums 

spinning we move in circles driven shaken freed 

the sand feels sandy     & loose 

until my bone & muscle    grow heavy 

my sight short             my breath shorter 

small waves now lap    at my mouth     & against my slit 

I am   out of my head    with the smell     like fresh seaweed 

of our glide      deep & slow      our belly-to-belly glide  south  

to the Tongue of the Ocean     off the  Andros shore 

where I lost you    dizzy with strange sounds 

now deep in my ear           calling me to shore  

if in this merciful light-headedness 

my heart is a cork    playful    light with laughter 

afloat    out there   with you   leading you oceanward 

understand my love      there is nothing here    but beach 

& the crushing weight    of my flesh   without water            

I no longer   feel the sun    burn my skin 

the too blue sky   a mirage of sea      teases me 

the deep deep     where we breached   for each other  

& dipped & dragged our flukes    like drunken oars 

off the Nantucket shore    while the tourists gasped  

is so so far away     one muscular wave away 

& an oh so slow deep swim   in easy coupling   with you  

your whale breath     in my lungs    

thankyou for the guard of honour    our podmates 

you brought       to steer me back     to you      

I would if I could       just roll over     roll over you   

& suck another barnacle     from your throat    

eat squid        from your tongue 

I hear your whalesong           above the rest 

& you my love    you still point your nose        to the shore  

you would       I know this             if you could      drag drag drag 

the last of my imploded flesh     back back back   to the deep