an open book on your lap,
hair a black jumble as you cross your legs.
i can hear the skin sliding over skin and the pursing of your lips,
like the sea chumming it up with the salt or some ships.

and of your tongue like a red oval sun
fighting against mine in the dark,

i lilt and drown in the dime of flesh above the ankle strap of your left shoe.
you uncross your legs and look at me, then dip your head toward the ground,
draw your hair out with your fingers, past your face, and let it fall

between your thighs.
skin brown as sand and as hot inside the living room,
beneath seventy watt bulb and lampshade.
you sit up, one mile into my mouth,

and cross your legs again, begin,
“do you like the way that sounds, joshua?"
when my thighs brush against one another?”
the moon gets caught
somewhere in a net as birds shut up
and cats uncurl.
unbuckle an ankle strap,

slip one foot barely out of your shoe. “listen to that,
joshua, you can hear my foot
arching, my legs smearing into one another.” sand glistens
with sweat

and trembles. uncross legs and gather your hair behind your neck,
slip off your other shoe and claim that you are “naked”.
i believe you
and blame my imagination on the book covered in the folds
of your dress.


*for my shortie