Kerry Cox

Cotton Mouth ..
Now I wish that snake
hadn’t bitten you, that you hadn’t
told me what you really wanted
I’ll keep the time we rode the ferris wheel drunk
and forget your blank eyes
when we kissed.
I wish you hadn’t had to be
rolled up in a carpet, smuggled
onto a boat, that you were the one naked
when room service arrived.
I wish you kept your dignity and
your wisdom, never running off
with a gunshot gr**go into
the night.
in stone, your mouth is so pretty
I imagine our own history differently, how
much we miss our own mothers, someone to brush
our long dark tangled hair. Our laughing
daughters immune to the tides
that kept pulling us under.
but we couldn’t die, plain
in dust. Couldn’t let time take its course,
wouldn’t be looked upon
as wounded, all these mothers of magic
who bore us whole and hovering.
reborn as river, flooding
a new mythology, amongst
our alligators and dark mud
slapping against silvered wood
where we celebrated
our independence
in sideways glances
and scarred stomachs
before separating
into lonely streams.
I still wish that snake
hadn’t bitten you, that you hadn’t
told me what you really wanted
I’ll keep the time we rode the ferris wheel drunk
and forget your blank eyes
when we kissed.