Bleeding for the Anocostia

I dreamt you rolled your sleeves
To bare flesh I didn’t recognize,
Your arm I once knew so well!

In those days we were linked,
Mind, body , spirit
In Sync.
Our blood pumped
side by side, mixed
potion
Flowed into one red, heart-shaped ocean

But the flesh you bore last night
Was unrecognizable.

Red vertical lines had your arm in a chokehold.
Red mourning plight.
I had no words.
Like a lonely bird
I thought of you,
Alone,

No one to lift you out of your drowning.
No one to save your arm, covered in skin so pure
Like snow white.
I should have known something so red and sweet would poison
You
Silent
All
The
while.

But if you would have screamed!
I would have rowed the red river to your heart and rescued you.
I scream for both of us and wake myself up, sweat soaked, in bed.
I dress and bike to the river,
Expecting deep red lines webbing themselves around her so that
Beauty is disguised, life- invisible.
But there is no red, only concrete shades of tan
A fishing net
Black wire
Concrete paths
Brown dirt spots the cement playground
At least a red sea would have been a sign of recent life
Recent cycles,
So predictable, only man can break
Only man can tear our linked arms apart.
Only man can make you ugly
Can poison your purity.