He's a boy who knows his body
and loves his body
and shares his body
with all the raw insides.
Humanity folded in lightweight-
sturdy bones and supple joints
that bend under heated gazes.
He's prone to say yes.

Whatever it means.

For me, I would taste
and savor each bite of the body
that buckles under warmth
and cut into the bones.
Then, after his yes, I would open
the rest of him.
Unfolding humanity,
mistakes and bewilderment,
the bitter, sour sinew of him-
the boy entirely mine.

I.

Sunning beside a sheer cliffside

Upon monuments of sediment baked in cooling salts

a liquid caress

Bitter winds eddy the pulsing surface which

breaks to rake smoothly a tide from the steaming sand

In swallowing beat a swollen retreat again

through the depthless sea

Bubbling secrets that rise into foam



II.

The bodies beneath the still water

Sweep through brown clouds that,

In their opacity, and among the weeds,

Curling, beckoning, uncurling

allow their scales to catch light

And with one rare eye, penetrating

I am seen, waiting


III.

I followed the stars into your home

and thought to see, keep

what treasures I touched

in their abundance, you wouldn’t miss one

if you noticed I had been there.

But, you always saw me and gifted me

life, at once, and death to life before

and to know your place in heaven

is to eternally wish

to wet my feet in your waters



IV.

I want you to bury me.

From my tongue,

taste conquest.

I will be still

except to clench my fist

and fill my palm with you.

The noise at the back of my throat-

Don’t stop.

Bury me.