hello : noun -
dreaming of birch, but  bleached
coloring in white with a very faint green
while looking into the sky, not at it.

ipseity: noun:
holding your breath until you feel it
--the abstraction of it, outside yourself
behind your eyelids, in your tea leaves
clenching fists, curling lips; seeing it on the internet

cartography: noun:
engraving your face onto my retinas
--the angle your jawline cuts into my irises
and burns into a permanent membrane;
roadmapping your freckles, curating my favorite ones

I'm waiting for something to shake me
hiding in the meantime,
stalling in my prime time,
omitting perfect rhymes
and waiting for something to make me

forgetting where the mind goes in the white-washed stills
lapses in the film
writhing in the sheets
in between asleep
and crying on the plane to San Francisco

I'll play you the set
to the cadence of whispers
on white sheets somewhere

in the soft glow
on acoustic guitar
carved wood, strumming words
into dim light and tired eyes
easing and breathing
to me, you're warm tea

tell me, tell me