How long will you sit there?
Cavities, your type of trophies from wilder days, the forgettable kind
Rutting between hills of lifeless grey flesh
Moist as the dust that stood to search (unsuccessfully) for fresh light

Nothing moves anymore
Even the 41, Guyanese invertebrates
Learned you long ago
They wait, tire

Sometimes before the hours tip, I hear you, or try to
You play the dances in your head
Just like swallowed tangos and serenades for mama
She always said you could sing

I fought for the top of your feet
My place, where my toes gripped wrinkles in your smile
Pulling me down, down past moonless flights
Yet no such pedestal stood

Mid-yawn, we breathed in springtime
I left a piece for you, buried deep in an injection
I lost my crown that day
My heart anticipated the warmth of melting snow

I'd cover furrowed brows in blue ink, sometimes black
Grinning under the blotting
Recipes for tomorrow
Words I beg to forget

Oceanic floor beckoned her last peculiar thought
As she breathed in seaweed, crawfish, and eel
She whispered, begged the silk to cut her free at last
She reeked of potential
Gentler creatures watched her final attempt floating North, a sign of her success
Revival in the cracks of her gills and the spaces between teeth, they grinned at the smell of her stretch

wind's cool lips envelop and chill
protruding listeners, speckled stamps
on crinkled noses
or sun-bit, stacked vertebrae

dabbing each one, I count the
anatomical stars, fibers of you
glancing over with the brim of
my own beginning, parted just so

maps unwind, sighing deeply
but robustly seducing the depths
of our curiosity, condemning

Ticked palms, winded, chilled black skies
Hope and wonder if difference arrives
Among the ambiance of it all
Thoughts, finally liberated
Expand from a lasting, anticipated sigh
Climb redwood trees, thickened,
But carve dreams out of skies,
Asking for invitations to see the air consume
Limbs, sturdy with age, built from history
Possessing unfamiliar years
What only unbreakable bonds can prevent