– for E
& we fall into the throat of this flower    recede unto its tongue &     it rolls us back into a seed &  tosses us
into the trench of its gullet     that familiar forest where.    we are the only leaves greening on a giant poplar tree
night falls on our bodies &  we gather the shards &   make for ourselves a tunnel where we could seek light       &   
night is a bottle that breaks into dawn     until it falls on the wrong ground     which i suppose we are.    which is
to say     in this scripture of love     darkness creeps into morning.    the way air seeps through the aperture of an
opening        &     the sun wakes up to an eclipse in its eyes    (look) the body too is dust until it beds in the arms
of a lover    & becomes a shape of love bleeding a heavy stain of red    but sweetheart in this poem there’s no
blood thick enough to slide a man into the mouth of a coffin     yesterday     i saw death lodged between your lips
&     i called it the science of self-destruction    because baby how do you wake up to the shadow of yourself
unstitched from our seams &     not break like morning with a temperature of grief in your glass of ice       i
know there’s a more silent way to bloodlet    like wearing a smile through the white lie of your face    before
walking into your lover’s eyes      which is to say how can you hold a voice that cannot float on air.     nor leave
a scar on an ear    & still kiss me to a watery sleep       by which i mean        a sweet dream which on every
occasion morphs into a voyage    where i am an atlantic slave sailing towards the america of your body     baby
i want you to grab me by the rim of my eyelash &    undo a tear from my eyes     a weird way to moisten your
ache    & cause it to rupture    in the room we cry together    our lungs an aviary for sad birds      then you leap
into my throat stuck like a fishbone    i cough & cough    but you are not there