he drew constellations on her skin in the finest, darkest wisps of his soul.

You said things
like perfect timing
and stars aligning;
I imagined constellations
of every galaxy
in every universe
conversing, adjusting
to a position
where we would collide
and I tried
and defied
those stars as best I could
because I knew then,
as I know now
If the stars gave me you,
I would never
give you back
And if there is such a thing
as equal
and opposite
reactions
I plan to defy
the laws of physics

There is nothing that I wanted to do more
than trace the constellations of freckles of your skin.
Watch as your bones became Orion
guiding me home
and home is you

one of the gifts for your birthday was
nonexistent constellations etched in your skin
cascading down your shoulders evoking
subdued squirms
        my ever gallant one

I swore they'd guide you home
these nebulas of crooked flora dusted
with sugary swirls of the Milky Way
a biblical formula of unquestionable permanence
        but

it was I who followed the ink which
washed down your drain
through sewers out to sea
        it was permanence
        shelter
        which skin couldn't give
and in those lullabies the ocean sang I
saw the stars clearer
        a better map than all your body combined
        could ever give to cure cosmic wanderlust

The stars dotted across the dark blue sky remind me of the multitude of my scars.

All spaced out but all connecting to form constellations.