your lips part, the chapped walls
of a great fissure.
my tongue carves your teeth like water
there is something i’ve been dying to tell you
this is the best way i know how.

counting your heartbeats  
ironically
tracing the lifelines on your palm
hoping, my hand pulsing

your ghost presses into me like a sheet
whispering, and all
i ever wanted

to forget myself
to live within your blood

is forgotten

i’m addicted to touch
craving the love of another mother
from which our love blooms
like a ******* child.

arms inflamed with bees,
bones protruding in awkward angles
from our elbows
never asleep,

your back is ripped with claws
oh, how to love, they told us
lies, to keep us up at night, to keep us
trapped behind skin

little petals at your ******* fold away,
wither with red and blood, falling
as though writhing, angry
snakes. but we’re gone

disappeared behind dreams of clouds,
perpetually propelled
by great tails of thorns, by
a force grown from seed.

darling, our hearts curdled, we
stand at the hearth of a fire
kindled by secrets, burning
memories of love

the soft movements of movie people through
stained glass, you will never know
never touch,
him
and that burnt sunshine hair
and the lips you almost escaped through

and the neverending sound of bells