the fire of your defiance burnt your name
into my tongue. a caffeinated elixir
scalding as coffee, smooth as milked almond.

a rebel amidst the fray, hair pink as bubble-gum.

i am as scorched as the earth left
in the wake of predator drones, but i yearn
to hold you beneath a moon of blood

and cover this city in red and black paint-bombs.

your eyes are the espresso at the beginning
of a long day, a pick-me-up, a reminder
that human beings are the works of art

wrought by the hydrogen of a hundred billion suns.