This is the world
                        we get and only
            this, the blood and the water mingle,
and wordless
            the moan among lilies and honeysuckle,
the branches shake
                        like my arms after rough
            sex I want
                                    you fresh from the hunt
your face smeared with the perfume
                        I leave on your mouth
            it’s this overgrowth that reminds me
                                    of how much
            we are overrun
                                    with the excess and the lush,
I have pressed
            this hand to your plush

                                                forget
                        that I said this.
            This world
                        we made is the only one we get,

            and it splays to a golden
center
                        and it singles us out
for sacrifice.

This poem was one of the winners of the 2012 “Discovery” Poetry Contest.