Vinaigre des Quatres Voleurs (Thieves Oil)

When scaling bodies like bricks / protect yourself / with your thieves oil /

amalgam of essential hydrophobes / curious gift et antiseptique / keep this

serum on yourself / in a vial like history / nine oils collaborating for six

centuries / colorful like your lies / designed to split you in four / for

first you must / dab some on your chest / ce parfum de voleur-apprenti /

so you might respire / slink around death in her marmite / then you must

coat the tops of your feet / internal support / to ward off maggots that

crawl on / or out of bellies / trailing the undefended / in immature prayer to

fly / but do take care / to not forget / the back of your throat / where

plagues summer / vertebrae visited / by ghost roof rats / enzootic / and this

genocidal season / do dilute your vinegar / drown it / this brigand’s broth /

in carrier oil / like sweet northern almond / so that absinthe / ail /

cinnamon bark / eucalyptus radiata / rosemary / lavande / lemon / clou de

girofle / and sage / do not dry you out / for God forbid you take all that

care / as you walk past the vats of cooking oil where the standing dead

swim / and bend down to strip the bodies you piled like bricks of their

worthless wealth / boosting their pockets / without / first / boosting your

immunity / staining your body’s coat / in order / to not compromise it /

your largest external organ / scaly sentinel.