My hands trace rivers down his back
Soft silt streambeds
My tongue follows the waveforms of his hips
Warm skin with lazy currents
My ears feel your heartbeat resonate in your chest
Strong swells crash into stone cliffs
My lips taste honey and saltwater dripping from yours
A mix of dalliance and mischief
Our bodies meld into sea foam

Your mouth fumbles
When you call me baby
The word is foreign.
You are afraid.
A mouse caught in the gaze of a snake.
Will it slice your tongue if you say it too hard?
Or too soft?

It rolls up your throat
Pushes past your teeth with great strength
Awkward and sounding slightly out of breath
You mumble it between "hey' and "how are you"
Squished and small
Like it doesn't deserve recognition or even its own space.

You've wrapped it in fear
Hoping that if you say it nicely
Maybe somehow it will be less like a missile
Maybe this time it won't hurt.

It is exotic to that mouth of yours.
A rare commodity,
A precious rock we have to excavate
Our own romantic version of the sword in the stone

I,
The ship lost at sea.
Crashing waves and darkness surround me.

Him,
The north star.
Brighter than anyone I've ever seen

Our loneliness mingles on our tongues
It lingers on the warm spot you left beside me,
When you woke to leave
It shows face on the nights you aren't asleep next to me.

Our kisses are filled with paraphernalia we are too petrified to state.
Our touches hold promises that we can only fulfill.

The ocean and the night sky swallow our lights
Yet, somehow we still find each other.

Perhaps..
Our atoms were in the same vicinity when the universe was created;
how lucky are we to, once again, cross paths.
once again,
To brush our atoms
One against the other,
feel the familiarity of "oh we've met before".
The universe has fallen into place many times since I have glanced into your eyes
Alas, he takes my breathe away.

i'm tiptoeing around the fine lines
holding my breath, silently
my fingers trace the boundaries
i am too close for comfort
circling the forbidden with my fingertips
i am so close to falling in love with you

in the sand, with a stick
you draw a line to keep us apart
but the sun burns too strong
to keep me from you
i test the water with my feet
too hot, too cold; just right
i am so close to falling in love with you

in another life
i wear clay beneath my fingernails
and linen pants around my hips
fastened with a braided leather belt
rescued from my mother’s closet
one she wore in the eighties
when she met my father on the seaside of france
i carry flowers from the corner
down a gum-stained sidewalk
past the park i fell asleep in during one
slow sunday afternoon
there are cherry red stains on my pillow
some from my lips, some not
i’ve never been in love
but i’ve never felt alone
my nose is slender
and my collarbones flaunt themselves
beneath tanned skin
i am someone who drinks ***** and
orange juice while watering my plants
a longhaired cat licks its paws
in the windowsill
as i lie naked in the sunlight
reading tolstoy and kerouac
and obscure poetry introduced
by the neighbor in 4F
none of it matters
i am just like a cloud
like a creaking step
i share myself only through
spearmint breath and coffee dates
here are my sweaty palms
here are my uneven bangs
you will never know me