Finding What Came Before

You must have come before me, dear
I’ve found your skin on the chair
Draping there, dripping flesh tones
Giving body to the skeleton rocker
Swaying in the silent parlor
Moved by your sudden absence
Creaking are its pale and lonesome
Wooden bones.

You must have come before me, love
I’ve found your hair all in the tub
Squirming there, running down rivers
Like snakes in muddy spring
Nameless effusions of wordless sin
Hissing beneath the shower
Where you remember shedding your
Scalèd skin.

You must have come before me, boy
I’ve found your heart in the garbage
Rotting there, or ripening perhaps
Remembering fermentation: grapes
Yesterday, wine, tomorrow, blood
Blame it on the vineyards,
Grape vines climbing, choking your
Deadened veins.