"Black Blood" and "House with Blue Shutters"

Black Blood

when the portals opened
and the blackness poured through
we fought to staunch the flood
with wizardry and wild science,
we close the dimensional gates
but at a high price,
now everyone’s shadow
is just that little narrower

House with Blue Shutters

this is a tasty planet
I’ll be sorry to leave,
sorry to move onto
the next plane of being
to slip into the new skin
decanted in smeared dots
of oil-paint into a new jar
…we keep meeting on
the same endless beach
the same old battlefield
inching around spokes
on the karmic wheel,
into new recognitions
in each other’s eyes,
but we’re only ashes
left after the flames die,
only the neutron star
curdled with a spoon,
I taste the death-rattle
in my throat as rich
and dark as molasses,
see the carrion circle,
time to close my eyes,
my ears and my mouth,
and cease to breathe…