sunburn

salt-stained and shivering,
the sun scorched playground
of several thousand
viscious Viking warriors,
pickaxes slicing, gnashing of teeth.
i swat them away like flies
investigating gangrene flesh.
whipped raw by wind and sky,
fire-chapped by some godforsaken
love affair between pallor and bronze
that no chapstick on earth could balm.
molting now, no snake-eyed temptress
but solemn priestess of aloe
slathered in chastity and vows of reclusion.
sister, russet-skinned goddess of light
cannot feel love for those blotched white ruins,
those monuments of earth, of skin
rising like stone casings from defeated kingdoms,
but in a kinder moment sends rain,
green globs of ice to blanket
wartorn winters with snow.