zafusy

Bones
for branches
crackling your steps

Anger–
furtive eyes
that lost us

Air
darkened and
darkened and darkened

More
than one
unsafe swerve into

Blaring
car horns
splitting dark air

Once
a kiss
on both cheeks

Dilution–
kiss on
one cheek then

no
more kisses–
This unbreathable air!

LET
ME FACE
THE NARRATIVE THEN

No match ever flared between us over an even number
of gold candles floating atop liqueur of melted jasmine
pooled in a crystal bowl spotlit by a moon’s benediction

no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match machete no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match

My eyes presented twin dilations of the aurora australis
but for an absinthe beauty become irrelevant before a sigh
you could not pretend into being about, say, the economy
rather than my increasingly thinning bones and furtive eyes

thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning eyes thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning thinning

Your body shall never block my loyal sky

block block block block block block block block block block block block block block block block plea block block block block block block block block block block block block block block block block block block block

That I always wish to sight said loyalty and said sky
does not compensate for the impossibility of your body
pressing against mine behind a sand dune
while children laugh from a reel outside our movie
discerned gratefully to bring joy within our frame
and waves throw up white lace bonnets across the surface
of a sea we would know only as a scent of salt
familiar via musk on our skin had we…

had we

had we had we had we

had

Eileen Tabios