we are not the
embodiment of beauty,
despite the way
your
quips dance with
my vagary,
or how
our bones are trophies
built from the
same bits of shrapnel
from explosions,
forged by hands
who never learned
how to fashion empires
out of anything
but fragments,
no,
we are much more
than beautiful,
we are
isotopic, enigmatic,
we’re magnetic and
eclectic,
we are
the sum of all things,
a compilation, a mosaic,
we are a
memoir of the universe,
we are fate,
we’re algebraic,
we’re the intersection
of two lines
without a destination,
but
when i follow the trail of
freckles
up your spine,
i find the root
of my
elation

she was
freckled, laughing morning
when the years were still beyond
a stretch of the imagination.

she was
winking, beaming daylight
when the moment was held
by the gaze of an eye.

she was
melancholy evenings
when forever had passed,
slipped through her fingers.

you drape your wrists over my shoulders
and pull me in a little closer,
and now our hips are slightly touching
our silhouettes dancing across the window pane

(our breaths are sharpening
and quickening,
our heartbeats are synchronizing
and stuttering,
our feet are stum-stum-stumbling
as our bodies slowly start to sway)

you whisper “i love you” softly in my ear
and graze your lips across my cheek

(leaving a trail of wildfire
kisses, set torches to skin,
a blinding flash of pearly teeth)

you taste sweet of white zinfadel
and i a hint of cigarette smoke

(i am drunk off of intoxicating love,
as you press your mouth
against my throat)

and i am etching lustful verses
with fingernails and curses
digging words, desperately,
down the length of your back
and we are slipping into love
as though that’s all there ever was

(and we are lost,
and we are found,
and we are lost,
and we are found)

and i am getting lost
in the heart of your forest eyes
and i am, i am, i am screaming:
"this, this, this is heaven!
and i am never—and i mean—never— coming back!”

the sun was blood orange,
dripping murderously into the
periwinkle sky, the trees were
angrily shaking their fists at
passersby, shadows looming
on the ground beside them.
the air seemed to vibrate,
abuzz with swarming voices
of the past and i swatted at the
sound in hopes that they would
not blast through the silence
i was sheltered in. it was the
end of something perilous yet
beautiful. love bit the dust almost
as hard as when it initially sank
it’s hungry teeth into the hull
of my heart, and no matter
how far away i ran
from the truth, it would pop
up in the window reflections, or
on the side of an expensive car,
staring me dead in the eyes
and i could not face
it—at least not yet—
i ran until my legs
betrayed me, no amount
of space could save me,
i just did not have a choice.
a ringing sounded
in the pit of my ears,
and when the clamor
cleared, what was left was
the remnants of your velvet
voice, drowning out any
and every other audible noise.