The Second Line

a bee suckles the tornado of a rose's heart

when I follow you into the cheap city

it all continues to continue          continuing

for your legs are wet as waiting around

if the visions have left me wrapped up

in his shirt little if

in gold before falls the tail light in dreams

scorched in bits with green bottled

silence monsters deeper machines that list not

our breathing and stretch my anywhere the

sky of corn between us in a blue dress

when I follow you into the cheap city

for your legs are tornadoes

and the backyard becomes a forest in sheets

of blue archers shooting into the dark guild

pink eastern edges taped to the entrance

and out of the stunned bushes

a box store under big unseen stars

when I am charging all my small devices

thinking of the mountain of the chattering blackbirds

 ____Mel Nichols is the author of four collections of poetry, including Catalytic Exteriorization Phenomenon (National Poetry Series finalist) and Bicycle Day. Her work can also be found at The Huffington Post,Poetry, The Brooklyn Rail, Jacket2, PennSound, Poetry Project Newsletter, and HTML Giant. She has been a visiting artist at the Corcoran College of Art & Design, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit, and others, and she teaches digital poetry and other writing courses at George Mason University. New books are forthcoming from Flowers & Cream Press and Edge.