I knew the shape of your face as well as my own,
but true contact marks us deeper than skin,
beyond flesh and vapor into the ether,
realizing that we can never go back
to a world’s beautiful axis without being
suspended inside its crippling inertia.
When pulled into eyes like glowing oceans,
the strobing tetras in mysterious dark waters,
vast enigmatic depths below such a glittering surface,
a place I could long to be forever enveloped by,
but never know how to reach out for.
Where loved formed beyond the human body,
when you remain a detailed echo,
traces of disconnected flashes left in me…
That night we watched the temporary rainbows,
vibrant explosions in the clear summer night sky,
your skin was voltaic to the touch,
I would only remember that and your lips pressing
tightly against me amidst the spreading brightness.
I’d remember so much more later on,
being pulled towards the ghostly shimmer of sands
your hand entwined as a beautiful tether,
an endlessly hissing whispering tide reaching out.
I’d remember the haven of your bed,
left frayed from so much rushed bliss,
the curve of a bare spine nearby,
I watched your warm silhouette,
skin endowed with a constellation of freckles,
faint moonlight streaming through curtains.
Locks left in slight featherweight curls
from my hands entangled in them,
strands like dark silken threads
that smell of jasmine and other flowers
when you were a storm straddled over me,
an earthly sweetness I can never name
but, like you, have memorized the specific essences of.
I knew your shape as well as my own,
the lingering figure gazing out the bedroom window
to the dark motionless streets before dawn,
evaporating before I can speak your name,
the one carved into the marrow and cells,
threaded to breath and dreams.
The place I could long to be consumed by
but never own the map to even when
love formed beyond the human body,
beyond the flesh and the ether.
Where you remain a detailed ghost,
the resolute traces left in me.
