xiv.

i am kissing you right now.
can you feel me? trying to
find the irises lodged deep in
your throat,

can you find me?
forever at the ends of rivers.
i am both the iron & the lime
& your mouth is

pressing hard on mine.

we are dancing. an epitaph
tucked behind each of our ears.
your hands curving
round / over my body, perfecting me
marooned on the carpet, its reds
emprisoning us.

where are you now if you are not with me?

kissing you, feverish
trying to keep you next to me,
both of us swaying
in time

though we are out of time / we lose the rhythm

the water stops running,
the lips curve over their teeth, im
penetrable. swallow me
intact as those flowers, irises changing
their own apertures.

we open / we close
the diaphragm

the light somehow
gets in.

the flowers growing like eyes
or lips even
watching us, waiting

at the river’s end i am unsure
whether to un
-lock you & your
floodgates or

shut my mouth & refuse you a way out.

one day
when the music is right
& the night
allows me to sleep
beside you
if only in retrospect

i will find you     finding me

& we will end
hard

like the river wringing its hands.

there is music in that.