she's drawing constellations
with the memories in her head
trying to trace them back
back to where it all began
Was it the first star off north ?
or the just right of Sirius ?
or was it the day she stormed out
and hid in the bathroom stall
tears like lava hitting the pale marble floor the way the rain was pounding on the pavement outside
wishing the clouds would go away and the year-long storm would cease ?

or maybe she's just thinking too much ? not thinking enough ? how can she think the right amount when time is endless and she's lost to infinity ?

she tries to line it up but there’s too many threads and she’s split at the end so now
she’s just back where she began
back to the silence
back to the night
back to lining up the constellations of memories
in her head.

The soul has as its sextant the ribs opened wide,
The heart its compass in fluid circuitous diatribe,
When each to zone the geometry of Greek sky  
With its powdery fabulism of centaurs and jars
From Aesop’s wine of words, the untimeliness
Of sundials to Charybdis’s bloom of giant watery eyes.

To know oceans by the dry riverbed of my pulse,
To scale only as high as the sparrow’s tomb of my heart.

you stitch me together with moon cotton,

stardust stuck between the threads.

you bandage my raw wounds

with your favorite constellations.

when I’m hurting,

you kiss my head,

and intertwine the planets with my hair;

a daisy chain of celestial bodies.

you lay me down among the ghost town of rocket ships

and dead stars

and you whisper.

“darling,” you say,

“andromeda’s got nothing on you.”

Warming Her Pearls
by Michael R. Burch

for Beth

Warming her pearls, her *******
gleam like constellations.
Her belly is a bit rotund ...
she might have stepped out of a Rubens.

Published by Erosha, The Eclectic Muse, Muse Apprentice Guild, Nisqually Delta Review, Erbacce, Poetry Life & Times and Brief Poems. Keywords/Tags: warming, pearls, bath, *******, constellations, belly, rotund, Rubens, mrbsex, body, art, painting, ******, erotica, ****, ******, naked, flesh

Sometimes I count the stars
I don’t know them by name
I’ve watched them my whole life
Somehow they don’t change
Even though I do

How can we close this gap between you and me?
When you don’t remember how my hands fit in yours
And I don’t remember the taste of your lips on mine?
Let’s meet in spaces where our love can roam free
Let’s meet where time is not our enemy
Let’s meet where the ocean and sky kiss briefly
Let’s meet where the sun and moon hold hands
Let’s meet where the stars collide in the nighttime
Let’s meet in spaces where our love can never end