I rest on jagged pillows, rock beds by a dirty river.

I’m inclined to sleep through footsteps from the floor below.

A canary beats its wings bloody on a ribbed cage.

Still half awake, your fingers fall like crazy rain.

A telephone pole gets struck so hard it screams.

Light splits and crackles underneath my eyes.

Your spider-lashes crawl up my neck, catching freckle-flies.

A whisper climbs from your mouth and tiptoes in my ear

Latching to left and right hemispheres,

Laying eggs that won’t hatch for days.

I get caught in your undertow, a slave to the current.

I melt into the ocean and get thrashed against the shore,

somehow more solid than before.

You are sand in my teeth.

You are sand in my eyes.

But suddenly,

your face is tired and fair.

Out of your throat, a sigh.

I settle into your crooked stick of a body.

Like moss or mold, I grow there.

And they’re beautiful,

These idiot hearts.