(1.)

I love

when a single breath
transports me
to the back of my neck

where your smile sits

coaxing goosebumps
to the surface
of a benumbed river

such is my skin
when devoid of your ardent glow

where the love that your lips expel
shelters in solace
the nomad so discontented with flesh

oh I love
how you transform
unspoken poems
into stepping stones

and thus
keep me parted
from my present death.

(2.)

I love

when life plucks at your ribs
and you bow your head back like a stork
as your belly swells with the warmth
of eddying laughter

as if to stick it to the sun
that some human moths
prefer the burn of a more intimate orbit

and I love
how you leave me scorched
but never lustful for a dusk
that just isn’t coming.

(3.)

I love

how you tesselate my bruises
with imprints of lipstick

and finish my breaths
when they are nigh superficial

I love

how you never wish
on shooting stars
or any other wounds
that now bleed oblivion

but whisper to every windswept dandelion
how you’ll dearly miss them

I love

how tender you tell the flame not to shiver

and how each day you tame
the feral squalls of my rivers.