I wonder
what did I expect
bouquets of lilies
or a trumpet sound
perhaps

but what
did I give
a dirtied handkerchief
and I expected
you to thank me
for it

Science

I want to pull your hair
apart, zig-zag my finger down your scalp
and open the strandy curtains
peel away each layer
of cranial armor
one by one

I don't care about your heart
its droning, pumping
a single movement repeated
day after day
after day
sleeping and not growing

I want to see your brain
its folds and curves
its slopes through hills and fleshy valleys
the electrical shocks
the fingered neurons and synapses
forging connections
shaking hands

I care about the things
that break you apart
and mend you back together
your command center
your fight or flight reflexes
your subconscious memories
what holds your cards
what spins you around

it turns me on

I want that wrinkly mass
I need your firework thoughts
it's all I'm looking for
it's what I'm falling for

braid your hair apart, lover
let me investigate your insides

Thou Art More Lovely

every time I think on,
read, or talk
about Shakespeare
I think I
fall
in love

with the words
maybe, or
the sounds they make
letters
strewn together and
singing songs berry-sweet
and wine-dripping
it is hard to tell

but
either way
He lives for me
and could be
walking here among us
plastic sandals flopping
still with
black ink on his fingers

and that is
the man
I'd crumble for
(no ruffled collar
but a Hawaiian-style button-down
and holy pen in hand)

45.

with eyes that can’t
quite see
I won’t try
to be too smooth

I’ll just revert
like Caufield
and tell you that I’m listening
to indie pop

and thinking
about what you
taste like

just remind me
if you don’t
mind
what I look like naked

because the shards of
you are stuck
like mirrors
in my skin

but like I said
I have misplaced
my glasses

Saturday Night

we sat
in stagnant water
spilling ourselves over the sides
hunched across one another
your head tipped back
my fingers on your spine
dripping our loneliness down our arms
washing it off
pulling it down the drain
your hands cupped
bringing water to my neck
following it down my shoulder blades
again
and again
eyes glassy
bathing you with my hair
and thinking
that we could get used to this