Black hole and Other Poems

By Janelle Finamore

Black hole

Rushing towards extinction on a Ferris wheel of doubt 
The heavy night air like an elephant thickens my heart with lust

You look in the mirror at the unmasked moon and beg for its glow

The wind clothed in desperation and desire striving to become a quiet monk

You strangle the wind while the circles whir, us a tangled mess

Licking my wounds as the darkness swallows us into its mouth. 

We fear a black hole ending
As we move recklessly, sliding down the throat of the night sky. 

The Dentist 

#1

As the dog 
slept on the bed
I crouched down

and tried to kiss him
but he snapped 
his jaw

At my nose
and I pulled away
buried my head

into the pillow of
my boyfriend’s
freshly made bed

#2

As you sat
on the couch
in my living room

I moved my lips
towards yours
while you

slowly tried
to reciprocate
and fell

into the light of
new love’s
burning sun 

#3

As the dentist
scraped my teeth
with a smile

Glimmering pearls
whiter than mine
he said

to brush the front
then the back
so my teeth

will be as bright 
and happy 
as his. 

Six feet

Her ears clanged with his categorical righteousness 

Unclaimed by his frozen thoughts and outright blunders, she searched for tender minutes. 

Eviscerated freedom, hours of blindness.

Staring into the face of a country in danger of losing its integrity by six feet. 

A nation six feet away from normalcy. 

Six feet where you can’t see or hear. 

Six feet where you can’t feel or touch. 

Six feet where you can’t kiss. 

Six feet where you can’t live. 

But less than one foot away, was this shouting pandemonium, long finger disapprovingly shaking its head at her. 

She vomited the tornado that was bubbling inside of her and he was swept away. 

But her ears would forever clang.