Language

When she pulls off her t-shirt
a black skull with crossbones
and burning eyes stares at me
from between her breasts.
It’s 1984 and I’m eighteen.
I’ve never seen a woman
with tattoos beyond a small smudge
of a bird above an ankle. I’ve never
been taken home by one either.
She finishes disrobing
and walks naked around the room
to light candles. She pours two glasses
of red wine, hands me one
and sits on a leather loveseat
with her legs spread.
A black and white Death’s head moth
floats above her vagina.
She sees me looking, laughs
and says As above, so below.
I’m silent and look away.
Take off your clothes.
The red eyes of the black skull
Glare and the moth flutters
in the twitching light
as I undress. The shadows
open like a dark mouth
as I begin to learn
a language older than men.

Rodney DeCroo is a poet and multi-disciplinary artist based in Vancouver, Canada originally from Pittsburgh, PA. He has published two collections of poetry Allegheny, BC and Next Door to the Butcher Shop with Nightwood Editions. His third collection Fishing for Leviathan will be published in 2023 by Anvil Press. His poems have appeared in Canadian literary journals Event Magazine, subTerrain Magazine, Geist Magazine, Canadian Literature, BC Bookworld, etc.