Brian Clifton
Kiss From A Rose
—after Seal
There used to
be the high
In a drug’s opened palm
Won’t you
tell me
it is healthy
Won’t you
open your hand
And let bloom
a pill’s grey snow
Is it
healthy
Is a pill healthy
When a man
came to me
When a pill
bloomed
on the inside
Of me
and opened
my body
Like a man’s palm
In his hand
a grave-
stone
To grow
on the inside
of me
It was
healthy
Won’t you
tell me that
Won’t you
kiss a pill
into my palm
Won’t you
kiss a stranger
And strange
how
Like a pill
a grave
Grows in
the mind’s
snow
Nursed
and
nursed
Until
gone
In the grave
Is a man
a man still
When
a pill
grows
Like a baby
in the body
Won’t you
tell me
Won’t you take
A pill
won’t you
tell me
To nurse
a pill
Because there
used to be
A sea inside of me
Brian Clifton is a PhD. student at the University of North Texas. His work can be found in Pleiades, Guernica, Cincinnati Review, Salt Hill,Prairie Schooner, The Journal, Beloit Poetry Journal, and other magazines. He is an avid record collector and curator of curiosities.