Snake-Jawed Epithalamium

Again I watch a cousin             fitted for a wedding gown

            lace and strings tightened         across the back, whale elegy

written across the spine           Fingers clasped around a bouquet

            Again the questions everyone                poses to me

when will it be my turn?           Confess—

            who’s the special         someone in my life?         Someday

I will find the right person               At the barn reception

            bride and groom dance           wind stirring blue ribbons

in the rafters, the antler chandelier                 mounted deer head

            I pitch bottles                           against a fence

in the field out back      lobbing glass

            shattering into the grass         Cigarettes flaring in the dark

couples running off into the windbreak trees               I walk barefoot

            to the edge of the lake            find a condom

-thin snakeskin             raise it to moonlight

            wonder if I am human if I am broken        frigid queer girl

the dead deer rises again                  breathing in the dark blue

            I step into water                                 peel the moon from my body

practicing love             with every mirror I can shed