I see myself
across the night
above a blood
tinged silver sky
a man with hands
and vacant fangs
takes me down
and back again

He puts it in
my swollen lips

I beg him once to
stain my skin

He speaks to me
in opium

He slaps my cheek
dripping on my
satin teeth

My blood
it singes
swirling bright
shiny demon
of my night

I see myself
across the sky
I am the light
a silver sigh

Melissa Hansen lives in San Francisco where she writes poems and stories and works at libraries. She has published and forthcoming work in various literary zines. Currently she is into her graphic novel and sometimes dissecting her previously written poems, resulting in built poems and forced poems, as well as writing in her sleep poems, and cutting up poems while writing new poems. She also likes poems. You can visit her at www.myspace.com/quicksecret.