# days one two three four freckles on your left clavicle connect the dots with my middle finger trace to your midline eyes north one shoulder off the sheet catch my hand exhale --- both shoes on on the edge of the bed for two minutes in two different blues tell me I'll miss you cover the longbows in fret wire turn the fruit from rotten leave your earrings behind not to see me again you just forget --- three miles off the blue ridge parkway ninety-three million to the sun disc to point to gone turn your cheeks no longer red drop my hand left my coat in the car --- you bend at your waist pick a four-leaf clover : my dad said I was lucky : only after dark after milagro your palms against my chest pull when I recoil enough night lights for a shadow sticker on the mirror ripped away to paper I pack starbursts cherry and lemon — a turtle from the coloring book all in a lump under your pillow it's enough to take your keys back --- ART that night again not that night keep my head still watch the LEDs bounce splice the tape actors jump the celluloid abrade the faces choke on the chalkdust your outline still on the board a brush steeps in the can fat strokes drop pepper on the sambas you bought me another coat three : you have to forgive yourself : I can't deliver at five months --- Lucy you step behind the wall dosimeter pinned to your breast pocket exposing me where did you go I spin the dial clockwise six different voices in a second static interleaved like a child's fingers crossed in prayer we lay on the artificial turf making grass angels until the rotation blocks the sun with a tether ball pole pull the aloe from under the sink freeze your palms thaw them an inch from my skin slather me --- existing on my manifold the Planck length of my skin the air compressing between a picked string and my ear a nerve from fingertip to cortex the moment language becomes dream the pink back of my eyelids in the dawn you are my border my limit --- leaving the angel in the valley I trod the mountaintop laughter following in silence the ligatures heavy across one shoulder I lay my creation on the broad stone bind him by my will to my will his pleas skid off my drums the sun in a drop of sweat trickling down my raised blade slick thud of steel between ribs ink floods the altar pours over the gutters and stains the dust mingling with puddled vomit I wrap the heart in oiled leather --- Will the ground holds the rain what falls the sea pulls back to itself drawing mountain streams comets leave no craters in oceans salt drains from the boy the tide pools in his lungs --- single file to the grasshopper's carcass lift the glass the sun in a point wisps of chitin of skin God damn it --- raiments of seven colors for the emperor's delusion arbiter — instrument of coin and queen equal to none opposite to all --- not my north nor my home but the fold in the map not candle but rust or moon but preserved tread not country or soil but scraping from under fingernails not vapor melting glue not envelope or epistle but teakettle whistle --- pacing from Alexandria the rocks pierce my sole through a worn leather sandal the solstice in Syene I shiver in the black water your noon light fills my well burns my face --- snipped the black ring from my ankle I called you kneeling in the walk-in closet t-shirts on old drycleaning hangers brushing against my back head knocking into the corner you printed my prayers on thermal receipt paper shoved them in a drawer behind an empty film canister held the bottle upside down smashed it on the corner of the fake granite hotel desk the neck tearing jagged red lines in the sheets don't worry about the deposit you didn't pay it --- wipe the dew off the seat pink east shifting clouds black to white squint before I pull the shades from the fanny pack downshift before the motor turns lock up at the Y hop on pump legs spent haven't moved an inch --- I thought dreaming you to open my eyes and did so sighing in blind light and turned kissing your closed eyes --- pop your eyelashes one nipple a sunrise above the comforter your Kali hands tracers of figure eights : will you do me a favor? pack me one more parachute : I won't let you fall --- : go play in the lightning a little longer : never let me win king of the mountain skin red clay grains of sand cling to my scalp for a week read me to sleep with tracts that look like twenties from a distance yawning I'm Peter flying before hills of burnt gold thirsty I creep to the green plastic cup beside the sink swallow three dead flies in the bottom before I realize wake me up before sunrise : the time changed : --- Puppets out of the pool showering in bathing suits water flooding the weeds between the stone tiles pinky up orthogonal to the rest my dog tries to bite the quarter off the ground it slips between shadow teeth twisting over me thumbs interlocked your bird flapping against the pup's wet nose I sneeze autocorrect tried to change shadow to affair