Flaccid tubing snakes
Its way through the window:
Vomiting charcoal
Like an overdose patient.

There's fire in her throat:
Expanding virgin lungs
Dirtied from blowbacks; nicotine
Yellow fingers ease down the heat.

Eyes cold as chastity
Stare: glass marbles
In a perfect porcelain skull -
Dilating as the darkness prickles.

Light breath whistles
From her chokered throat:
Perfumed with the stench
Of gin and champagne,

It fogs the glass
Like the hurried gasps
Of teenage love:
Fingernails tearing at paper skin.

Pillar-box red lies wiped
Across lifeless cheeks:
Like a child eating strawberries.
Blue lips pucker,

As smoky diamonds
Blackened with carbon monoxide
Lie still on her moisturised chest; glittering
Against silent lungs.

Want to comment on this Poetry? Sign up to Edit Red and you will be able to comment on Poetry and get access to: Upload your own stories and poems, get readers and their feedback, promote your work...