Prior

That time we tucked our mosquito bites in
unattached to a thing
to any things.
We tip-toed outside
to smell pineapples
growing in old rubber tires.
Moonlight whispered down
through lava trees
As we swallowed the stars
nesting in each other's dimpled cheeks.
(I forgot to tell you then
because I didn’t yet know how)
the bees would frighten me irate
even as they were slipping extinct
(I forgot to tell you then
and I still don’t know how)
To me- being poor was a terminal illness;
I wanted to scrape it off like leprosy
So- I was going to save us by sailing away
I wanted to protect us from every thing
From all things.
(And I know,
though your silence is an echoing time-capsule
of who we were together
Then.)
To you- I was running away.

I’d take an island of bees over your sting.
I, the coward, the invasive specie;
Misjudged.
Yesterday, I walked the covered grove
down the red highway into the sea
where mangos rippen and drip and pop
I swam almost too far
as my legs sifted the navy waters
pumping with wonder

and from below, I felt the moon cry for us

not the us in my mind or yours

not the potential us

but for the two stars she gave us to see in each other

and we never gave back

or even acknowledge anymore