i like the way you stretch your whole body
just to tie your free-willed mane in a bun.

i like the way your eyes practice dancing
on the yellow pages of the math textbook
as if it were a map to someone's heart.

i like the way your fingers get stuck
trying to reach the rays of the sun.

i like the way your lips curve up
without even noticing
when you see the guy you've fallen for.

i like the way you're so focused
lips biting, eyebrows furrowed, face tensed;

but the one thing i like most,
especially when you're focused,
the one thing that ***** me up every time
i accidentally glance at you during an exam

is when you tuck that single piece of hair
and continue to pull it back behind your earlobe
like a stroke of wave leaving the shore,
as if it resting there was the most imperfect thing in the world
that could've saved my life.

i hope i don't fall for your sadistic pleasure in ignoring me.

I awoke
at the crack
of dawn

to a blood red sun
-a bullet hole
in a faded work shirt

with a creak in my bones
a quick kiss and a groan

I thanked her
and slipped out
the back door

before her old man
came home.

r ~ 8/30/14