platonic love 
and the escape of the 9 muses

1. 
the muses we're sick of
being another man's inspiration--
they said the only
place to pull poetry is
out of the mouth of woman--
a queer body--
scar skin and the 
frame of windowsill--

2.
zeus nailed the windows
shut--
as if a god could
ever stop something
like poetry--

3.
you would 
know how imperfect 
i was-- i am--
there would be nothing
i had left to hide--
fill the space under 
my bed with lamp light--

4.
you taught me poetry
there's poetry in silences--

5.
there's a certain 
rhyme scheme to a
morning--

6.
open the windows--
crawl bare foot through 
the garden in the back yard 
of a cloud--
Calliope painted 
the walls of our dorm room
with cinnamon
Clio writes our names in
the closet walls--
Euterpe laughs
in the scratchy voice of a
dying air conditioner--
Thalia stacks cups of pudding
while Melpomene reads
the bell jar
from the first time and cries because
she feels like she
has let something go--

7.
Terpsichore taught
us to dance-- but only
in a page turn-- 
Polyhymnia made a hymnal
for the entrance to 
our room and it sings
in the voices of unwritten
women-- the throat
of a coffee mug--
stories carved into forearms--
i'm going to ask
you to read me another poem 
about a Goddess--
watch Urania as she paints
black nail polish
on the back window
to make the night sky--

8.
and it was Erato who
tricked us into falling
for straight boys--
she still thinks it's funny--

9.
i don't lock the door because
there's nothing
i feel like i need to keep
out-- let's be muses
no one gets to use 
for their inspiration--
pry the nails from the windows
and sit from opposite
sides
of a windows sill
smudged with cinnamon--