I spit it out like poison in my mouth

I spit it out like blood between my teeth

A hangnail that dug into the pink of my gums that throbbed it

Out and out and out and

Out here you can see forever suspended

In the space between the stars

Orion’s belt wrapped round my bloody knuckles

Thrashing out to lick at my own skin

Like:

a cat’s tongue

Like:

a tongue of flame

Like:

a tongue of a lover with knives instead of teeth.

I let him slice into me and

Slice me open and

My heartline’s bleeding out onto the damp earth

A crimson constellation and

If only I could swallow it again and

Lock it up behind my bared grin.

It would be mine

All mine

Forever suspended

In the hollow of my throat

Until Sirius sinks his canines in and

Shakes me like a rag doll and

Tosses my fragments up

To glimmer in the ink.

Don’t look for me, stargazer.

I already found you.