at the county fair on the zipper
which everybody says is held together
in places with duct tape
you kiss me with blue-raspberry
slurpee lips
while we flip
and flip and
my stomach is sick
but i don't mention it.
the sky beyond the bars
of our cramped car
is still blue
but the night is bleeding in.
i wish i could swim
in that lingering blue:
play mermaid like as a child
on summer nights
in the neighbor's aqua pool.
in the water, weightless --
yet even then, perfectly careful
to avoid the deep end
where the sharks lurk.