Your body is not a language
But I know it by touch
I’d know you blind and deaf
The whorls of your fingerprints
Are as familiar to me as my own
Sometimes I don’t know
Which is which
I find myself getting our
Bodies confused and tangled
Forgetting where your skin ends
And my own begins
Even when we are apart.
Am I another person
Are you?
Would we really want to be
So separate that
Our skin becomes our own?

Spark the stars into being
You settle like the dust
Of meteorites, falling stars
Over the memory of dark skies
And endless expanses of black

You are a night sky
A million stars that light up
The darkest parts of the universe
You are supernova bursts of light
Stars bursting into being
And flickering out
A million miles away

And all I can do
Is write about the stars
And never even dream
I could be even one.

Our bodies are torn up
By the weight of sunlight
Our skin cannot hold it out
And it bursts, white hot
From our fingertips
We are shattered
From the inside out
Our throats close up
On the words
That could save us
And there is not enough
Water in the world
To quench this thirst
Our bodies are
Consumed by light
We are brighter
Than the stars
But it burns through us
Like hellfire
And thousand degree days
Like we’ve swallowed
The core of the earth
And all we can do
Is feel the rapid
Burning in our veins
And hope it will last.

Meanwhile your heart is in your throat
You’ve stepped into the middle of a conversation
And you don’t quite know where it’s going
But that’s kind of okay you guess
They are turning your face into wallpaper
And you fade and peel away under their apathy
But that’s still okay
You aren’t the type to burn bright and sudden
You are a slow burning candle, not a firework
And you figure, you can be okay with that too
You don’t need the flash, bang
You’re okay with flickering
But never
Quite
Going
out.

You fall
In licking flames
Of withdrawn absolution
Every stone of your foundation
Crumbling, black and broken
Into the oblivion of desperation

You fall
Into the ruins
Of your own creation
As the hand of your absent god
Sweeps clear the ground beneath you

You fall
A desperate gesture
Hope a distant memory
Burnt and fading at the edges
It crumbles under your shaking hands

You fall
This is not change
This is not epiphany or retribution
There is no stopping or fixing this
You’re too far gone.

I see the pain of desire
Dripping from your
Half-closed eyes
And I want to swallow it
Taste the salt and metal
Of tears and blood
And a thousand other things
That are just you alone
This is like
Breathing in sunlight
And letting it burn
Trails of scarlet
Down your throat
And I can see the sunbeams
Exposing themselves
Between each rib
In your chest
Are they burning
Into the core of you?
Can you even feel them there?
I can feel them
Through your skin
As I place a palm on your chest
And feel you breathe in
I’m burning now, scorched
I can feel my lungs
Grow hot and bright
Is this reflected light
Or are you giving
Your sunlight to me?

Let’s shake hands
With the possibility of mercy
And let the stars
find their own way home
Let’s drink the night sky
As it comes crashing down around us
Let the darkness lay cold
On our tongues
Like the ink I spill
Onto blank pages
When no one is listening.
Let’s burn bright and hot
Like supernovas and dying stars
And lend our light to satellites
Let’s send a message
Written in new constellations
Drawn with our fingertips
Against the night sky
We’ll let the stars know
That we see them
Even in the brightest
Light of day
And That they’ll
Never be forgotten
Even if every last one
Blinks out of existence
Right before our eyes.