bloated and rotted
abandoned on the roadside
i lay down with you

we have the same birth chart,
her and i.
she and me.
hands clasped together at kensington row

aries sun, aries moon
and gemini venus
and scorpio mars
together, both with black hair

you said let there be light / and there it was. in every touch / every breath / every whisper / i am set aflame / the wrath of god / the love of god / my heart is like wax.

there is terror in your eyes / you gaze upon me wide-mouthed / beads of sweat collect into the chalice / with your unspoken devotion / my lion face peels away / my eagle face peels away / my ox face peels away / my human face peels away

taste of honeysuckle / sound of windchimes / the air's thick like a shroud / you, with your basket of mulberries / me, dumbfounded and mouth agape

it’s gone.
i never knew how to feel. i never knew what anything meant
and everything was new, and the waters were oddly still.
i chose to swim to you. despite my drowning
and i swam into your arms, and i learned to love.
you and i, we grew together like vines
intertwining, our lives connected
by what did not seem like a tenuous thread.

days turned into months.
we did not count down the time, it did not matter to us
until yesterday, when you decided
we could no longer be lovers
and i still don’t know why,
but it’s gone.
it’s gone.

when i was small, i would stare up the banana tree in my front yard.
it was
high, and i thought it would never end
growing past the clouds, into the sky
when i was eight
we moved to the united states and
i waved goodbye