Lei or Choke Chain

I throw your name around my neck
all the blood in body quickens
waterfront eyes catch backwater stare
dreams of brine barge bay out
& at the mouth of always & never
the target bullet shy wears roundabout
like halo like circular lifting off in
the wind the strength of feelings
a throwaway but from what & where
honey drips slow like sleep it off
wake up to head a boat of buzz
bombilation between legs flowers
drumming for the sting the backtalk
sliding from the brim of your bottom
lip it wasn’t until looking into your eyes
felt like my breath was being buried
inside your chest that I noticed the way
my hands trembled when my face
would lean in & mine the air for
your scent what does anyone do
with all of this anyway I’d ask her
but the yank might break a neck
her’s mine yours all of them so
full of beg of pull off my petals
pants pooch out lips or purse in
heart it’s no matter when a flowerbed
can forget & become a graveyard— can
blank out without saying

Amanda Oaks is the founding editor of Words Dance, an independent press + biweekly online poetry journal. Her work has appeared in Thrush Poetry Journal, decomP, Lunch Ticket, & Stirring, among others. She is the author of five poetry collections: Hurricane Mouth (NightBallet Press, 2014), her co-authored split book, I Eat Crow (Words Dance, 2014), & her series of free eChapbooks. Her newest chapbook, The River is Everywhere, was published by Red Flag Poetry in 2017. You can follow her on http://amandaoaks.com.