2 Poems by David van den Berg

“blood magic”

i don’t believe in ghosts / don’t stop them haunting me / white flash hair raise candle whoosh /
lay under sheets too thin for cold / count heartbeat some distant drum /  badum badum / birds
don’t call ‘til 5 am / badum badum / badum badum

pa taught me to bathe in blood / i got a gator’s lungs / pig’s heart / i could go on / swallowed mist
‘til i forgot / where i stopped and it began

what’s so special ‘bout blood magic though
earth drank enough blood to be magic for 10,000 years / don’t seem to have helped none

if i got a pig’s heart / who’s got mine / lost myself in bits and pieces / all that’s left is stolen
chunks what i sewed up with needle bone and spiderweb / what kind of man it made / alone at 3
am while my woman sleeps / and i still walk backwards outta darkened rooms

“lovecraft was a city boy”

green eyed dreams of broken things / black crow croak / i heard rats in the walls by the grapefruit trees until the night our liver-and-white bitch snarled through the kitchen and ground small bones to pulp and licked my face / ‘cause she loved me so

words don’t mean much when wasps crawl out of coke cans / half chewed / goddamn does coke dissolve shit fast / daddy says check your boot yourself / but you only kill the things you find /
they only let you find ‘em ‘cause they ready to die / i know / ‘cause jesus told me so outta the
mud what dried where red bull gored two coyote / i hear their momma howl come back to me my sons my sons come back

moon don’t care / that’s all i got to say about that

sneak out the trailer when midnight comes / follow the ants / they know the way / pick ‘em up by
the scruff of their neck / shake loose their tiny tongues / i did it once and they told me son we’re
off to see the king in yellow / i knew enough about things to leave ‘em be after that

see wingless white-eyed flies / come crawlin’ to you cryin’ daddy daddy check my boots / i got
good news / when them growed-up maggots crawl through tattered sheets / they ain’t real until
you smoosh em / sweet dreams i love you

(_wax_)>>>