Countess II

    Imagining the smoke burnt
imprint of a tatoo
with tapers flickering,
the bejewelled gaze a dragon's snout
must bring
or the serpent coil, crimson flame
curl of dashing cobra,
its very fangs drawing
lifeblood from the fleshy
perch in smooth, red scorching.

On the pectorals of a sailor.
Perhaps whiplash of the granite waves,
grim trucker with a "Mother"
grasping chains
that see burly sandbags in place -
hirsute biker, cords of
hair lashing his tattooed lady
the lavender caress of scar
with implant that
of the chopper itself,
her fleshy buttocks
careening off the road.

Paul Cameron Brown

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