E - Beauty sleep

After bathing, she sleeps
without blowdrying her hair
or rubbing it with
milk moon smoothing lotion

She prefers now to let
the hornets of the pillow
morris-dance with the wet ribbons
all night, then retreat
into her mouth when the day
comes back for another turn,
with another bouquet of purple nutsedge
and another smile like a bandit
in a Japanese jidai-geki film

She raises herself
on a climbing frame of elbows
and ankles and twisted sheets.
The matted King Kong claw
waving fitfully, spasming over
the crust in her eyes, frightens
the grinning day, and his bouquet
flies to pieces. The squeals of the cars
are shredded into radiator gurgles,
The smog of burnt flesh and exhaust
thins into the smell of a bony man,
The city gates squeeze
behind the curtains

The hornets creep out of her mouth
She rolls over to kiss me