i want to peel your skin back
and reveal your deepest sweetness.
to look at your veins
and memorize their paths.
maybe then i’d understand
why you are so rough on the outside.
it takes a lot of work,
digging your fingernails into the flesh,
pulling and pulling until you are bare.
but it is all worth it;
to visit your center,
to break past what conceals you,
and take you apart
slice by slice.

I yearn for something long gone in the depths of the future;
Not able to place a finger on its familiarity.

Discovering what is already known
Can be a clarifying process of redundancy.

When a step forward feels like a tumble backward
Toward the inevitable direction of it all.

When a puzzle forms around me
I stand there, inert.

The challenge beckons me further. It calls me closer,
Etching itself deeper into my path.

Smiling at the fantasy of completion on the other side,
A field of emotional mishaps rains down before me.

There are bones in the wood;
cracking, groaning, shattering.
The skeleton of what could
Have
            Been

There are bones in the wood;
whistling, wailing, whispering.
The skeleton is not pure—not good
It
            Still
                        Has
           ­                         Flesh

I am consumed
Fed, bulging
Bulbous
Splitting at the seams
Engorged with You
Satiated by your tongue
Glutted, packed
I am full

catching a moment
in a jar

and its gone
before you see it

before you put the lid on
you are lost to a daydream.

Oh, my darling lover,
My thoughts are always stitched with your image
You live in the quiet corners of my mind
I can’t seem to think without thinking of you

I find myself wanting all your time—
To see you in every form, every being, every unguarded glance—
And for you to see me from every angle,
To study one another like a language only we speak.

I crave your touch like a favorite song I never tire of
I picture myself wrapped up in your arms, never straying from their comfort.
The way my hands slip so naturally into yours—
How you trace their lines without even thinking,
Pressing kisses into them like they’re precious—

You make me feel treasured, wanted, and marveled
When your fingers slide through my hair,
I swear I can smell your love in the air.

I remember kissing you in your car—how you held me,
How you guided me with care and hunger both,
How I trusted you so quickly,
How you touched me like I was something sacred.
And still, I find myself constantly craving that feeling.

You made me feel desired in ways I didn’t know I could be.
Even the fierceness of your touch—the way you held my neck,
the way your palm met my cheek, the way you touched me with love
I felt it. I believed you. I believe you.
And I wanted it. I want you.

Darling, I want to be close to you in ways no one else could ever reach.
Thinking of you sends shivers through my body
You are something wild and consuming; who knows what you want
I wonder how you’ll handle me
As you shape me to your needs and I shape you to mine

Bandits in the night
Rumbling through pedestrian leftovers
Fluffy tails and primed noses

Hallucinations of a well-meaning friend
Scurrying across the trails
Gone like a ghost

Jump against the walls.
Like no one’s watching
Enjoying the embrace of friendship