If you saw everything in retrospect
What language would you hear?
Climbing through cumulus clouds
The color of death valley
Sand strewn prayers
Over scraped knees and heavy cello bow
You slapped me backhanded
I watched myself
Fall like water
Wet against the sound
It excited you to see
Blood on my lips
The outline of violence
Lacing time and roses with secrets
You look out at a stark dull day
Feel glad you have the assurance of what stands rigid behind closed doors
We wear bright smiles at parties
The golden couple, they admire our rehearsal
Like pedigree animals who mask their bad nature
I’d bite your hand
And he’d fill your throat with glass
The lowered sun casting a haze over
Our magnification
Teaching darkness to obscure the simmering
Hand pinching my thighs open, striking
Quiet match of fire beneath
I hold onto your dismissal
Like butterflies
Slipping and fleeting
Driftwood
Skipped stones as smooth as
Your tongue in my mouth
What language do you speak?
As you lean in to remove all hope
And pinching between wet fingers
Extinguish light til only the circumference
Of stars
Lend their distant
Glow