the darkness always gave us
permission to abandon composure.
never a clue to what time it was,
like animals or teenagers. the street lights
encased us in amber and we
weren't real anymore.
we were projected on screen, above a
vault of plush seats.

I can remember your commanding voice, you said my name
with an emphatic period at the end

skipping ahead of you I was a kamikaze suggestion,
giggling in haphazard exclamation points

you caught up to me and
full of fire, you stopped me and whispered
softly, contrasting your demands with your
hand on the river of my spine.
"be quiet" you said and folded me
like origami, all I could see was the warm concrete
near my nose and your legs behind mine.

everything into me, with each push
and a comma of a gasp, taking
all of me with you and into you.
there in the middle of the street, I got lost
somewhere around midnight.

I've been eating myself from the inside out
trying to explain your fragile mystery,
searching for ways to capture and frame your
tiny bubbles of whispered elusive innocence

but I can't seem to find a reason in my static colored mind
only a hope to someday run away with
you into some sparkling unknown oblivion,
where soft roses will whisper between our nestled fingers

and we'll become the essence of our shadows born from the stars.
but I wouldn't need my eyes nose or ears
just to smile and feel your
humming soul's eloquent melody in my veins

a slow and practiced
dive off the edge
and up to my neck in boiling
iridescent foam, bunches of
savage pearls, a well of scalding
contradictions enveloping your
names all over my limbs, I'm just
a letter to a shadow lover
sent to the flames for feast

of running
of fist throwing and fire
cutting scars and betrayal

without
him, my soft skin
exposed
and rough wounds
imperfections

stealing sanctity
bind my arms