Venice 2

if you take for a guide
whatever first found moving
in any direction
in this city
you shall lose your way always
if you lean against the walls
you also carry them away
in your hair and knit

dreaming us

i dream these dreams on purpose
of our street darker
window light deeper
i call them up
exact replicas of here
but for time
folded coordinates
matching degrees
press together
in dreams
we argue the same affection
for many possible eternities

how we talk now

it was like love
first and shy
from your corner to mine
we wished to hold hands
but it seemed an ocean
sunk into that space, our faces
pained with smile
less to say than we had
this reflection between us
this surface
black, whitecapped
took your gaze
sealed and sent it
i could read your lips
but not your eyes
like i said
it was like love
all first and shy

leveler

i was a reveler by the fire
you were a bright bloom wasting
we took turns on names for god
hallelujah, latecome blessing.
down they poured
shaken, seeded
apart we shuddered
fording shallows, swimming secret.
names slick across our skin
dislodging bits for narrative
we recited omega and the end
the river listed reverent, relative
more it asked, more we sang
til tow filled our mouths, drew us under
giving up that bloom, that flame
we sank our names in the dark leveler.

bodies by mine

since bitten tongue
struck foot on stair
pressed hand to wall
or face to prayer
numb turns noun
state of weight
come skin to bone
take on nerve
only sensed when severed
by bodies by mine

the prisoners

marble wrest,
swim, love,
surface
from scoria
gnawed block
womb gnashed
only ligament and animus
barer than the newest born
cleaving light
your only carapace