how can women
house these winter thorns
in their chests
without becoming
beasts? the soft and
heavy black stretch
of wanting, the bluebells
that grew in the warmth
of his sleeping breath, a dark
million miles of silence
how can a woman
bear it? that ache
for light
against wilderness
as he burns and
strikes fires in the dark
the ache to sit and be
warm in his spit and
his glow, his warm
body, his warm mouth
as the wet of the
woods falls quiet
...
Everything that reaches does so
both inward and out. I can’t reach you
without going in up to the shoulder
of what I am, without pressing my face
to something crying out
to be both wild and asleep.
To me, your tears
smell like strawberry oatmeal.
And you're beautiful
When sleepless.
My love changes people.
Like wolverines change small animals.
Like apocalypses change fragile things.
With a graceless blink.
My kisses are serrated talons
And when you get cut,
To me, your blood smells like
Whiskey and vanilla candles.