Wendy J. LaTulippe: two poems

A LETTER TO ERASMUS

Forget Eve.

There is a howling in your bloodstream
admit it --
something unspeakably powerful
in the huffs of your nostrils.

i know there are days
when you feel as useless as your adenoids
collapsed as an unused lung; yet . . .

I testify with joy my coccyx wags,
and phantom claws knead the fabric of air.
Here lingers the pleasure of blood
while gnawing the sauce-soaked rib.

I'm certain there's a recollection
of teething on the paper birch;
that smokey savor returns with a kiss interrupted
to nibble the cartilage of your nose.

I dine on the fruit of the tree of knowledge,
picking the flesh from my teeth
the way a capuchin cleanses his mate.
A callous forms on my sole,
from all this too much uprighteousness.

FIXED INCOME

"You're so cute I could just eat you up,"
Cooed the grandmother one,
Pinching his baby cheek
Blossoming pink,
Checking for tenderness.
Meanwhile, her husband
Stoked the potbelly,
And thumbed his way around the spice rack.