most afternoons I check into my body feel its weight where it’s going/ how its breaths aches fears exist/ in a single arbitrary moment I find myself/ in your office you sit at your desk I turn/ your chair kneel down wrap my arms around your waist/ lie my head against your chest tell you I love you/ my heart

swells like a swirl of wind/ gathering leaves grows so large it snares/ a sunshower pours cool rain/ through my arms & belly glows warm & orange & surrounds you/ you take my head like happiness were a quarter/ you could coax from behind my ear say/ I love you too and radiate your ice blue light/ for a moment

time is visible & a color I can’t name/ except to say clouds over an ocean horizon/ at sunset words like joy & grief carry no meaning the clouds touch/ every pain we’ve known until light fades to gray each in our own town/ it would make no difference if not/ for the new color you shine from the ceilings of your city/ house & my aching knees that prove we can/ unbind whole days from time’s rule when/ we let our souls bloom.

for SM