there is settled ink in the curve of your chin, graceful arms shadowed on your wall when you decided, hey, let's dance to the music of morning birds. there is empathy in the way your tongue slides over the word "we" and tastes it like coffee with cream and no sugar. i took your wondering fingerprints and gathered them against the wall, placed so like the direction mattered, the colors fairly blinded the tigers sleeping under our beds and they screamed because there are things too beautiful for here. tomes draw inspiration from your voice and write god words in english so normal people can understand how some people do not understand. i typed you necklaces and you wear them on your skirt, taking glances from strangers and tucking them into a deep pocket for later and dark and thoughts. you set ransoms for the autumn leaves and put them in your hair, i only left them there because nothing is as good.
yet i am afraid. i am afraid of your willow-branch hair that raises the ones on my arms, i am afraid of your cotton ball eyes that flay open my thoughts, delve into the things i don't know, the things i didn't know, the words i should have said, the words that got stuck somewhere between my epiglottis and my lips. i am afraid that you are a violated temple, that you are an unholy goddess and i am deathly afraid of the fact that you might be human. i am afraid because dandelion seeds leave after you wish on them, eleven eleven turns to eleven twelve and you have missed your chance. shooting stars are only in the sky for so long, and i am afraid that you will only be in the sky for so long and i will miss my chance to catch you, i am afraid of your words that slip between my headaches and relieve tension. i am afraid that the sky castles that i built are only cages and no one can really live in them, including you. i am afraid that my list of requirements don't fit people, don't fit you, i am afraid of your beauty and afraid of your humanity, and so i wait. with my mouth closed. and smile when you stand to get a drink, as your skirt brushes softened legs, knowing something that you do not.