I Want You Dangerously
       

open. But I am a woman, so cannot
              open you the way I would if (at the hinge
                            of your spine, the tight latch

of your knees) I had a key, or hammer. I mean
              no violence, just as good men
                            never mean violence,

but still I tremor, tremor. Your mouth
              a ruin—your eyes like the dark ascending
                            wings of a bird—

I watch magpies destroy
              the nests of sparrows. Pillage.
                            Plunder. If I were a Viking, I'd take you

home, my only and best prize.
              I'd marry you to my bones.
                            Oh, tell me you want my

burnt sage, saltwater scent—my barricade
              across the roads of your body—or tell me
                            to leave you the fuck alone, and I'll go

further inland, like a lenient
              hurricane—all of your beautiful
                            levies intact.

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Copyright © 2011 Danielle Cadena Deulen All rights reserved
from Lovely Asunder
The University of Arkansas Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission