gristle

walk into the heat-fire fever.

i stare into the flat red sky

the stench of you is all i see.

you smell citrus-sour

swelling with your sweat-soaked skin

the mortar cups your grapefruit flesh –

i pound the pestle,

salivating. teeth to tear the muscled corpse

i’ll feast upon your body

like a wild beast. one fist a claw

around your bobbing throat

one hand flush between your legs

thrust to gut you

from the inside out. show me

no resistance. no,

sacrifice your silence

i want to hear you howl

for mercy. shriek of your lion’s roar

writhe like the spring put to flame

i’ll pluck the apple from your throat

and let your hunger bite me back.