The Cento for December 3, 2019

Cento

Waxed figures burned outside the leather windows.
Give my kidneys to kid drummers.

You courted me with cucumber soup.
The strongest coffee can’t wake me
from the nightmare that is you.

Winter turns over in her sleep,
but only God can make you pee.

Freedom has as many fingers
as the links in your chain.
All I dream about
is to wake up as a weed.

At the altar adorned with blood-red roses and ripened grapes,
we have come for a purging.

I just love that I am open.
I want to be committed to all.

How crazy life was, repeating itself.
This memory is bittersweet.

During every First Tuesdays open mic, we communally compose a cento using language taken from each open-mic reader’s offering. This cento is composed of lines from the work of: Peter Marra, David Swiller, Marty Levine, Chris Robini, Shams Momin, Herb Rubenstein, Norman Stock, Adina Dabija, Adriene Ftherakis, Henry Sussman, Ayo Inerhunwunwa, Julia Scudiero.