1

a woman caresses two turtledoves
perched on her breasts

a fluttering and the doves
fly into the air

they are pure white
snow on a chicken

their perfect beaks are pert red

it is her breasts
that have taken flight
rising beyond the trees towards
the softness of cloud

2

I’m standing on my little
ladder by the side of the road
picking my teeth
with a chicken bone

on the radio
Jerry Lee Lewis is playing
lute
one leg swung over
the fretboard
I think
one of the woman’s breasts
is looking at me

it sings
‘join us here in the flightpath’
and my body assents
gives up its skin
a pale sheet
drifting into the air

3

the breasts
and my skin play
rock paper scissors
but the breasts
make the sign of a feather
and no one wins

they play crazy eights
with pieces of mirror
tell spooky stories about
the bodies below

the breasts show my skin
sailors’ knots
then my skin cooks hot dogs from
a recipe in the Book of Revelation

soon it will be night
and my skin becomes rosy as
the breasts begin to set
no it is my skin that is sinking toward
the horizon
the breasts
the evening star shining

4

back on earth
the batteries to my radio
have run out
Jerry Lee has faded

I offer my skinless hand to
the breastless woman

in the cauldron of the universe
metals are forming

inside chickens
eggs