criss-crossed on a map i draw
ten times as many lines as
i knew possible, which

doesn't surprise me
but
what a catch in my throat
where the deeper blood sleeps when
i fall onto the outlines of
heavy-sweet campfire smoke, two
dozen promises,
i'll wrap myself around him by my pinky

kiss the love into my bones,
manifest your heartbeats and
tell me i am awe-inspiring

i will drag you out your
home, coax whiskey down
your throat like tonic

promise me boundlessness and
i will wear too many rings,
and i will let street signs be

i’ve loved myself into a
new home, i call your ribs my
bed, your collarbone my beams

you promise a lifetime that
you cannot truly commit, but
i still commit mine, too

3/17/14

deliver unto me a
horizon, because
i am scared
i am scared of
your oceans, i’ve only just
dipped my toes,
i can tell

i wished for a love come;
you exceeded my
red-ink expectations

walk among the sunsets
for in twilight
rests the shadows of
who you are;
roll back your curtains
(they are heavy)

i try to write you down
when it's dark at night
when i can see you best.

see, i'm trying to write down
your eyes,
because yes, they're
blue, and there's a million weathered clichés
i could write about just your eyes;

but, i'm not trying to write down
the way they look
when the sun hits
them best,
i'm trying to write down
the way they make me feel again,
the way they put
the sun
inside my chest.

maybe if i lay
my body prostrate
along the line of you,
perhaps when we die
you and i might
grow,
and our bodies might
entwine for far longer
than our lifetimes

i called your name through
my fingertips
and you answered , you called
back with the blinks of
your seas, the shiver of
your late autumn forests
and i could
taste the fresh breeze in my lungs.

toe to toe and lip to lip  is
the way i've learned your
outlines and your inlines,
your filled in
places and the places
where the ink bleeds through
the paper.

maybe if i painted a seaside,
maybe if i painted a forest
i could smear down the
silhouette of you