[we met at the horizon...]

for shawn.

we met at the horizon–i said hello and you got
me a chair. your eyes were marbled with cloud,
the sky’s denim, and i kissed your eyelids with
my butterfly mouth and although we knew that
at any moment the sea might rise to swallow
us up, we were not afraid. i emptied the sand
from my mouth so i could better tell you how
much i love you, and we left the line between
sea and sky a rumpled bedsheet.

boreas falls in love with a fire nymph

the north wind blows through my chiming mouth
and frost-webbed lungs fill and and empty and fill
again. oh bringer of winter, let me rise to meet you
with my hands of flame and embrace to create
an ocean, shallow in some parts where twelve
horses might ford, deeper in others where even
zephyrs might drown. on a coast of ice you will
breathe through me, your eyes frozen radiance,
our hearts a twist of elemental incandescence.

[we clanged pots...]

we clanged pots as children and clinked stemware
as adults but the charade could not go on. still
wearing baggy suits and unhemmed dresses we
went out into the night and danced amongst
a clutter of bakeware and frying pans. we became
lamps bobbing in the street throwing off our permanent
glow of adolescence. with windchime mouths we
crashed into the new year, the moon a cracked
china plate, some dish like shaved light.