COUNTESS
The pig's head omelette--
something akin to a tatoo
buried squarely on the upper
torso of the man
wielding an axe,
chopping wood.
Shoulders drooped,
the bizarre rendition
had a female
counterpart
--a snake, fitted like a
fish-net stocking
coating the upper leg of
the dancer writhing to music,
so soporific,
near the copper shield
of the table,
ever-molten ash,
air-borne with the foetid smear
& puff of cigarette smoke.
[62]
COUNTESS II
Imagining the smoke burnt
imprint of a tatoo
with tapers flickering,
the bejewelled gaze a dragon's snout
must bring
or the serpent coil, crimson flame
curl of dashing cobra,
its very fangs drawing
lifeblood from the fleshy
perch in smooth, red scarifications.
On the pectorals of a sailor.
Perhaps whiplash of the granite waves,
grim trucker with a "Mother"
grasping chains
that see burly sandbags in place--
hirsute biker, cords of
hair lashing his tattooed lady
the lavender caress of scar
with implant that
of the chopper itself,
her fleshy buttocks
careening off the road.
[63]