BONES EMERGING

I am boiling water and still-

She smells like a decomposing leaf,

She grows new vertebrae;

They blossom down her back

While we sleep, her ribs multiply.

The skin between her knuckles

Is ash, dreaming paper, or

Maybe, paper dreaming tree, or;

A tree, just dreaming.

She says her nails have stopped growing.

Like a decomposing leaf;

I mistook her

For the lace of a curtain

Fluttering.

Behind my shoulder,

As I smoked on the fire-escape;

I recalled,

She hadn't left the bed in days.

There is a film that everyone should watch

At least once in life, but I can't think of it now.