Stink as Metaphor

Paul Ilechko

 

My stink is a metaphor for sugar

consumption     or a mural     painted

 

on the side of the construction site

where you built out your famous facsimile

 

of yet another great European city

the water licking dark and cold on a frayed

 

morning of kites     soaring on the wind

of bitter responsibility     reclaimed as myth

 

 

I held my tongue     pinched it with tweezers

until the blood ran between my fingers

 

it was just another crime scene     smeared

with evidence     everything taut

 

and spinal    and we waited at the place

where the years converged    the soft

 

place in memory      wheat colored

and aromatic     something visible     to die for.

 

***

Paul Ilechko is the author of the chapbooks “Bartok in Winter” (Flutter Press) and “Graph of Life” (Finishing Line Press). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Juxtaprose, As It Ought To Be, Cathexis Northwest Press, Thin Air Magazine and Pithead Chapel. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ.