Cereal sex: in the fourth hour of night

It's 4:30 AM and just made myself a bowl of cereal, wading carefully through the darkness of the kitchen, the entire unlit house. I've grown to know this hour very well--too early and too late for volume. All that is here is silence, and me waddling through the black, preparing a bowl of cereal.

Cereal sex: in the fourth hour of night

Not that you are fat or clumsy but you must waddle
through the blackness, through the unlit rooms
you must waddle with your knees bent
to space out the weight of your haunches
and buttocks tensed, keep your knees bent
and remember to keep your back loose, open
to any shift in sloppy weight or unbalance.
But above all, remember:
Tonight you are hungry.

You have come
into a delicate affair,
the entertainment of hunger
and silence, latestayers of the night
but at this point it doesn't matter
because tonight, you are hungry
and that is all.
So close your eyes,
and waddle through the black.
Land soft on the the linoleum.
Careful. Soon your feet will stick
to the warm dead flooring,
soon you'll be wet,
sweat from the passions of hunger.

Keep the eyes closed, remember?
Tonight, the hands will be your eyes,
and every finger a pioneer,
combing across the surface of saucers
and bowls like the howling wind
returning to the night, returning
to the gentle crevasse of the earth.

Gentle return, soon your fingers fall
grasped around the rim of the bowl,
the smallest bowl, a delicate affair,
remember? And the milk uncapped
sits heavy, wet, waiting for you to tip
her over, slow and light, just tip her over.

And when is it over?
The the unload, the flow,
the overflow when is it enough,
too much for the bowl?
In this blackness,
you are nowhere.
No light, no vibrations,
not even memory could exist here.
Only the faint sensation of your bent
knees, buttocks tensed, your back
loosened, open. Your feet,
already sweaty, stuck humid to the floor.
Go on. Check the only way possible.

Stick your finger in
the bowl until
the tender tip,
just the tip, breaks
the chilly surface.

5:24 AM-June 3rd 2010