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The Word of Mouth Spiritual

When they say your satellite is losing its orbit
And each of the day’s 23,000 breaths is as malignant
As the one before, and your blinking eyes mimic
How Neanderthals begged, and your remote no longer
Lets you change channels … this is the time
To gather your excuses like kindling.
God’s real gift is black magic.
I once loved a woman with three mouths.
One mouth kept talking as we kissed.
We made love in the kitchen, dinner cooked
In the stove, and then burned in the stove.
I don’t recall what the third mouth was doing
As her first mouth kissed me and the second mouth
Talked and inhaled and talked and exhaled.
God has a voodoo doll for everyone,
And they just might be all of us.
I woke with teeth marks on my cheek 
And she had no explanation. Imagine, 
Someone sticks a pin in your eye
And a person on the other side of the world screams.


Image by freeimageslive.co.uk – Halloween

Rick Bursky

Rick Bursky's most recent book, Let’s Become a Ghost Story, is out from BOA Editions. He has a book published by Saraband before that. Rick's poems have appeared in many places including the American Poetry Review; Field, Iowa Review, Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, and Antioch Review.