anything less than everything
is something less than nothing
less than nothing
less than
nothing
and the rhyme goes on and on.
beauty takes a detour
through loneliness
with silence in the backseat, sitting, staring,
still, the road goes on and on.
her stomach was a contour map
crags and valleys
and fault lines
creeping toward each horizon.
the beauty bewildered me
overwhelmed me
blinding and sacred and innocent,
hiding every
time she took a breath.
“Don’t look at my belly,”
she whispered,
as my eyes traced every crack.
following every line,
riding the highways of her flesh
from
one side to the other
one end
to the beginning and
back again.
“i love it,”
i whisper,
“i love everything about it.”
less than something.
less than everything.
less than nothing.
less than
no    thing
less
than nothing.
the silence should have been a warning,
and sometimes,
i will think it was.