Lou Reed, the Reverend
by Kelle Groom
wouldn't finish that bottle
of whiskey
with youor stay
when you drew me
by the small of my back
against your chest
its cage of bonewhere your heart
tilts
two clenched fists
drumming under skinechoing that dark morning
in the catalina--
run on coffee, cigarettes
the ache in your heart
without sleep--
chaotic circus of early beats
upper chambers
quivering
before your heart stopped
coldlong seconds
before the cusps
of crescent moon
fired by a bundle of cells
flung openand your heart
throbbed familiar
with the flap of valves
the turbulence of blood
chorusingthe dr.'s pills
red-line your eyes--
i try to teach
your rhythm
mine--
slow
your heart's
erratic prayerreally, i listened
only minutes--
afraid of the racketing
the rests
of cleaving my breath
onto yourswanted to drink
that bottle down
burn my mouth
with you,
spill like night
slick
on pitch black
dirt--
torn waves
of lou reed,
the reverend
skiff in, out
blood tide,
hurtling dark road.
© 2005 Kelle Groom
Kelle Groom (Zappa and the Wedding, Lou Reed, the Reverend) lives in Orlando and was raised in Massachusetts, Hawaii, Texas, Spain, and Florida. Her poems have appeared in AGNI Online, Crab Orchard Review, DIAGRAM, Florida Review, The New Yorker, Witness and elsewhere. Her collections of poems are Underwater City (University Press of Florida 2004) and Luckily (Anhinga Press 2006).
