If my skin were a curtain
I'd pull back the drapes
at the corner of my clavicle.
the breathing, feeling organs
of my torso would reveal
what you never see.

the clenches in my stomach
when I catch your fleeting glance

the double-thump of my heart
relishing your bare shoulder

my lungs frozen--suffocating
under your cold, soft touch

shrinking with the biggest sigh
as I watch you walk away.

But I always wear my skin
two layers too thick
and hide my delightful shame
of delighting in shaming you.

clover honey hair
iris pools of sea spray

soft moon skin
sunrise hands

bittersweet smile
faerie laugh

Andromeda shines
behind black pupils

a glance covers me
with morning dew

neck of dusk
and back of noon

silk chocolate fingers
red wine wrists

almond eyes closed
by snowflake lashes

a heart of sunset
and soul of crashing waves

beauty is seeing
a ladybug on the ground
picking it up to save it
from reckless falling feet
and realizing
it has already died.

beauty is crying
with all your might,
so hard you can't
even make a sound.
but it works out because
your friends are in the next room.

beauty is staring
at the person you love
who stares at
the person they love
who stares at you.
all looking, none seeing.

beauty is scratching
the skin off your hands
and clenching your palms
so tightly it hurts
in the only way your body
can express your mind.

beauty is laughing
so loudly people notice
and stopping and wishing
nothing had ever been so
funny because it wasn't
worth the embarrassment.

If I could breathe the trees
I'd exhale color

And my lungs would be full of Fall,
My chest would Rise with roots and sap.

I'd breathe them out, they'd take it back
We transform into each other.

I'd be Daphne as my
Skin turned to bark

And join the display
of orange red yellow brown

A laurel tree amongst mighty pines
a nymph before the gods

If l could breathe the trees
I'd exhale color

I changed direction
Mid-pavement mid-walk, mid-sentence of mid-thought
And I chose home.

And my Calypso caressed me away
with her truth.
The journey home is harder than the absence was.

It makes exception to the adage;
I ignored where my heart was,
and I chose home.

I'll never get there
And I'm not coming back.
I'm choosing the eternal walk home.

If you look closely,
you'll see my soul speak.
peel your eyes and watch--

the subtle jaw and fist clenches,
rise and fall of the chest
shiver up the spine
listen carefully
my soul speaks--

tongue pressing to teeth
chin lifted, eyes down
elbows bent, knees locked
these words
become phrases

tears welling, not falling
hips swaying and popping.
heart pounding, neck retreating
I've spoken whole novels
in these articulations

to know oneself, stop talking.
your soul speaks in your body:
start watching

I walked through the damp grass,
across the grimy pavement that shone,
coffee mug in hand.
the drops fell in
and I drank the rain

And my body expanded
because it contained the sky
on my tongue, down my throat
in my core, in my soul
I drank the rain

My mind was a cloud pattern
my arms were the wind
my eyes turned to hail
my fingernails dripped off my hands,
they turned to rain.

My eyelashes were the snow
on my autumn sky face
And my feet sank into the soil
nurturing the grass
As i sweat out the rain

I puddled on the ground,
reflected the emerging sun
I condensed to rejoin the sky
and formed a cloud of my own
and began again, to rain