I.
       i saw your mouth it was a
       mountain of destruction and i
       stretched my toes to the end of the
       table as an easy escape.

       but the smoke billowed forward i
       forgot where i was
       running to so i stayed while the
       clocks moved gently i
       stayed to hear the secrets of the
       sun.

II.
       i am slight now the angst has
       disappeared like summer lightning i
       whisper now my soft repetition is
       patient and aware.

       you try to cross me like a bridge now you
       loosen your eyes to look like the moon.

       i smile but do not nod, bridges
       collapse under such steady weight and the
       splinters on my arms can only take so
       much.

III.
       i will try to teach you to move without having to
       feel your breath, your dangerous
       ideas. progress is measured in tiny white
       fingernail bruises and i will tell you if you get
       too close.

       but don't hope too hard for it;
       no one ever has.

IV.
       i am a sailor's knot but please don't try to
       untie me these things require special
       training and a determination most men can only
       pretend to have.

       you will never understand to trace the
       soles of my feet such a soiled
       solution will not occur
       to you.

       we are not different or even
       at all the same.

V.
       no one escapes anymore.

       we all fear the trains now, the buses are
       so warm, the planes will all explode like
       supernovas pasted on our windowsills the
       ashes of our ancestry moved to tears in the
       soil.

       these are the things you should
       see when you close those
       eyes, not my hair like cornstarch in waves like the
       ocean not my hands hiding grenades in your
       sheets.

       but is that really what i want? one leaf and the
       bridge collapses.

       one step and you'll do the same.

VI.
       i don't want to know your
       middle name.

       it is a noose and i
       can think of a much easier
       way to go.

VII.
       just slip out the back
       door! i'll say. i'll meet you next to
       where ever the crickets sit!

       but you won't know i've parked out
       front i will tear away with the
       unnerving highway paint you are
       reflective yellow next to my
       shoulder but i dot your stories with
       pale white strips that beg pass
       me pass me but i move so
       slow!

VIII.
       listen to me i speak the volumes of the
       sky to discount the length of your
       jawline and i will batter you with
       bravery until i've stolen all you've
       got.

       i will destroy your
       easy speech.

       i won't mean to but i will carve your
       face until you are a fresh tomb.

       you will beg for the end but it
       will not come it has
       never been that easy my darling but it has
       never been so hard.