Kissing your cheeks
Is like kissing the ocean
When speckles of salt
Drip down my lips

My mouth full
Of these waves and whispers
Like I drank the Atlantic
In the smallest of sips

It was like being too big
Wishing you could disappear
Inside the ever-growing
Crowd of people
As their eyes wander onto yours
While you try to ebb away
In the corner

But much too small
Inside this body
Like it could not contain
All your bones and muscles
Like your skin
Needed to be stretched out
In order to hold it all

It was an awkward in between
Of being too big
But also too small
Of being too much
But not enough
Like being nothing at all
And everything at once

The creature trickles
To your mouth
And pools around your lips

He drapes your shoulders,
Wraps your arms,
And licks your fingertips

The monster pouring
Down your spine
Demands your every breath

Cascading through
Your velvet soul
Hungry and obsessed

His golden hair
And amber fangs
Bronze your milky tones

He slides his teeth
Down to your knees
And craves your fleshy bones

He soaks your skin,
And steeps your lungs
In black and smoky fumes

His appetite
A savoring light
Until you were consumed

She often said ‘I love you’
But not for statement of a fact
She just liked the way it sounded
To hear someone say it back

And this love was not the quick kind
Nor the drink of cheaper wine
Of lovers stricken blind

It was the champagne in the sips
Snuck by the cracks of time
Until you burned inside my swallow
Kisses never mine

And it was this tender crushing of my back
Like shoulders bent to snap
Like crunching in my spine

That chiseled all these hollowed cracks
Within my bridled sighs

And when these lacy fingers seeped
Like icy creatures bravely creep
Around my waist; forget to breathe

Double-****** hands you shoved
Into my stomach; reach
And pull these wiry tendons
I forbid all men to keep

And it was this love so deep and aching
Like teeth jarred and breaking
Like freezing in my sleep

That caused this marrow scraping
To leave me empty ***** and weak

And this fire deep within my writhing bones
Became intensely hot and burned the town
In hues of red and marigold
Mixing ash in shades of black
As the whole world screamed in terror
Running with all their might
And you just stood there roasting marshmallows
And singing campfire songs
Until you fell asleep next to my warmly kindled wrath
Like the entire universe in flames
Was not as important
As laying next to me

You wanted to know if I loved you
So you plucked my petals one by one
Throwing them off to shore

And by the time you found your answer
I was not a flower anymore

Constellations glazed her cheeks
And graced her button nose
Leo and Orion’s Belt
Penned in perfect prose

As if a brave astronomer
Had scooped up all the stars
Collecting bits of diamonds
In his cherished mason jars

He scattered them along the soul
Of the girl he deemed deserving
Poured out his containers on
This coruscating earthling

So that galaxies could dust her skin
And the universe could taste her
An interstellar miracle
Of flawless illuminators

Now we find the Milky Way
Engraved upon her skin
Supernovas radiate
A trail down to her chin

Every verse in twilight
Inscribed on this mere human
Dotted down her arms and back
Celestial contributions

So when she looks up to the heavens
To beaming lights of fascination
There’s never want or lack within her
For she is made of constellations

She flirted with death
Fearing no harm
But death fell in love
And she in his arms

But nostalgia still leaves ink
On my palms
And she leaves stains
On my lids
So when I close my eyes
I can only see you
And see you
And see you

And occasionally she
Will drip down my lashes
An arduous descent
Down the path of friendship
And silently
Blot my cheeks
In blackish hues
Of me and you

And I have loved you since December

I was thunder and rain
And I watched people shiver in my gray
Haze, like I was only there
To take away their sun

But you came without an umbrella

And you dipped your fingers
Into my bluish solitude
And painted the sea
The heavens and my eyes

And you told me that
The rain always makes
Your coffee taste better