Jenna Cicero- Three Poems

The Serpent of Adam in you:

For many years I have tried to forget
the mountains of your flesh that built a home
for me; a cave that wrapped its arms
around the cool of my skin and breathed
it’s dampened breath upon my bones.

I have tried to calm the fire that burns
my heart with bitter flames and lick the wounds
you bore upon me years ago;
the weight you tethered around my chest
in forms of ghosts I never knew.

But I cannot undo the crimson stain
you painted deep across my face; each pore
sings of lust that tore the promise
from the hems of your tattered embrace
that faded from her unknown warmth.

The lies that rested in the truth of your-
self; like tainted fruit upon a pure tree
I sucked the juice right from your mouth
until your shame, it clothed me in leaves
and ripped the life right out of me.



The Art of Miscommunication:

I will never understand the invisible barrier
That blocks what drips between my lips
To waves that dance around your ear
And miscommunicates
All the words I meant in love
For bitter hearts with sharpened tongue.



THE SLEEPING SWALLOW:

Oh quiet bird,
How you coo in your deepest of sleeps.
As your breath suctions kisses upon my blushed red cheek.
And you lay in the nest of my hair,
Wound in the strong steady arms of your song,
That you sing within your dreams.