Steele baby dig me a new arm vein.

i stole the keys to the excavator this morning--
poured diesel into sleeping mouths--
we dreamed of smog & a kiss--
forehead of ash wednesady & coal--
i was always a charcoal nude--
soot laden-- devil spin--
i leave you hands stained from the
last time you fucked me into
a page--
today i taught myself 
the controls for the machinery--
black seated queen-- i road 
an elephant who cried metal--
cried teeth of soil-- cried
rocks for her children to eat--
she's hungry enough to take
what i give her-- she won't listen
to the boys anymore-- she knows
babies only feel like swallowed stones--
heavy & carried to the pit--
we devour the murk of dawn
before the construction workers arrive--
we don't want their boots
inside us--
their fists of dirt & yellow shirts
sink all of us to the silt--
what do you know about a river mouth?
the delta--
the Nile-- the basket we left
our babies in
this rush of blood
dig & dig &
dig myself a new vein--
the core was only another river 
for us to drop our boots into--
that's what i'm doing
i'm digging myself a new
vein in the front
yard-- slice the grass-- i'm playing
with BOY TOYS-- 
playing-- little
God with the gnarled teeth
of the elephants-- the hippo feet
stomped through the mud
& when it starts to rain i mistake
my blood for your blood
for your rain for the needle
working it's way--
knitting a vile of blood
to
tell me it's only my brain 
trying to cut itself open--
have you ever breathed loud
enough to be a river mouth?
drank enough blood to be
a rusting elephant--
oh this vein i dug at least it's mine
before the men come in
the morning to bring
their boots 
their boots 
inside me--
let's dig these
new veins clean-- save
our blood in lava lamps
for the doctors new tests
to find us hysterical--mechanical
again.