Is it possible for scent to touch skin
to speak to it
for words to breathe and linger and laugh
in my hair

Do you see the way I look at you smile
do you see how I count every giggle
for how it caresses my heart
like a bird’s feathers after a long flight

Do you not see the light and the longing
in my eyes
when you lift your fingers and
pick up the lighter
rubbing it against your shirt
your sleeves rolled
and earrings hanging loosely to your face

Words with you
are scarce
disgustingly insufficient

with you,
only and only
glances work
and heartbeats buzz

My heart and you have conspired
for me to love
for me to loathe

loathe your eyes
eyes with a tinge of brown slyness and
a stroke of black audacity
that incapacitate my soul
and my heart flutters away

My heart is no longer
blood or veins or bodily constituents
it’s a repository of you
and everything of you
every gesture, every scream, every wail

My love for you
is no love at all
it is a concoction of contempt and misery
and yearn and succulence
it panics and consumes

Love helps you sleep and smile
but
I last slept only before I saw you smile
sleep has gracefully abandoned my system
leaving me at the mercy of your smiles
the smile that the lilies envy
the smile that breathes air into the dead and dingy

I must think of you
for me to write of you
I think of you in ways
that are menacing and amusing

But why think when I can feel
when I can feel the time we held hands
and the heat generated within my palms
and how my fingers trembled afterwards

Why think when I can feel your gaze tracing my hair
Time gets stuck
and the food burns
rivers drain out
and tears dangle beneath my eyes

How are you so bereft
but also so rapturous
with all that exquisiteness contained in you
do you not feel it tickle every inch of your body when you sleep

You have of me as much as I have to give
but I wonder if
I could remanufacture me
and produce never-ending amounts
to be devoured by you consistently

My trysts and
fantasies
are bewitching
but perhaps
not so truthful
and tactile
for you to love me
more than just
some of me.