summer is just a bruise blossoming on my pearl skin
i'm eighteen and the world is sadistic
but you tell me i wear it well
you wear me
we're so elegant in this sin
you word me like a pariah
when it ends i'll be hell

you string words like a necklace
pull them around my throat
poet with a finest flute
filled with liquid gold
we lose
endless impressive nights
to the keen of jazz
trumpet notes collapse
a jaw bone against
a new language

dress me in silk
perfume my neck
engrave me with
your new decadence

daisy
you say
threading the word through
the tail end of august
daisy
like a chain of open mouthed flowers
daisy
the nights are wilting
shortening their hours
daisy
listen-
i could give her the world now
gold and love and the finest furs

when september comes
i turn nineteen
i wait in the atrium
bronzed like a summer's statue
your finery thread heavy against my neck
i am leaning into your mirror
the one that decorates the hall
it cuts me off at the neck
when it ends i'll be hell