by mothlight

 

I read the tarot on my phone

on heads they stood and hands they hold

the lovers switched to stand on hair

the sky the ground the earth the air

meant you’d leave me for another

by the weekend

 

the knowledge tree flipped on its head

unwrapped the sheets on the hotel bed

hunched o’er the light of the writing read 

fed out the fruit to the dirt instead

oh and sent all the wrong wings flapping

sent all the wrong wings flapping

 

the doctor’s wife said I must be heartbroken

she could read it in my nose

she could tell that I’d soon be spoken to

by the way that I held my clothes

she could see that the cards were upside down

see that my pulse had been turned around

 

I did not know what the tarot told

‘til it flagged on my telephone

the awful words that your thumbs intoned

the rotting seed sought from the bone

said not quite now but hoping soon

 

you would vanish with the basement moths

in the dim red light

outside the ladies room