After the River

After the River

You melt like words on my tongue
bitter pith of lemons
essence of oil to salivate
sweet and sour on the sides
the tip tastes of salt
from the sweat that drips from the eye

Slow bits of dying lie scattered about
like chunks of flesh bitten out of a living whale by sharks
the ten percent loss of body mass is followed by death
the sharks swim on only after they've each eaten their fill
plus the tongue of the leviathan

Devour your flesh live
the essence of being is still there
to share with you in the communal meal
the sweat of salt heightens  your olfactory senses
on the tip of the tongue tastes of ocean

Words almost spoken
rest by the banks on the river tongue
that eddies and swirls around incomplete thoughts
the blossom of the lemon is sweet, honeyed
doesn't prepare the tongue for the fruit

that's why we taste both sweet and sour 

on the same banks of tongue

We add sugar to sweeten the burden

but it's still the same sour fruit

the back of the tongue recieves the bitter pith 

as it journeys to the throat

There is no return to the sweetness
the bitterness of taste is to be sophisticated
like coffee and dry martinis
sweet teeth are for children

The appetite never ceases
tolerance for sugar increases tongue's addictive appetite
we eat each other down and starve from lack of nourishment 

     we are the world's hungry
     see the hunger in our eyes
     the salt, the sweat, the tears 

     to increase and stimulate the taste

We strap on promises we can't keep across the flesh of our tongues 

intolerable links of sweetness across the pith of the lemon
essence of oil escapes from the rind
voilatile into the air we breathe
our nostrils flare and we hunger for more

     we starving bodies 

     we hunger 

     always we hunger 

     for more

1979

added 2/2017