Let us shed our skins and dance
with our jittery bones and pumping organs
beneath the light of God’s false eye.
Let us braid each other’s hair
and kiss our thin lips together in prayer,
for I pray only to you, to you
and the water in your eyes.
Our skin is too thin; let us be
snakes. Let us wrap our bodies
like tide pools ‘round each other and
twist until there’s nothing left of us
but seashells and wet sand. Let us
be snakes and uncoil. Let us
be snakes and tempt each other
from heaven with the promise of
apple-flavored lips.
Your hands are no bigger than mine.
Our lips are the same painted red.
And I can see your heart caged behind your white
cracked bones holding out its hands for me.
Dance with me through this languid air. Let us
dance as the wind carries away our skin like
two ethereal projections searching for a
single fine word. Let us kiss and fold and
tumble. Let us unstitch and re-sew, let us
write each other with poetry. And let us
become, my love, let us become.
Taste my apple lips and I’ll kiss your snake-like skin.
Braid your long brown hair with mine.
Let us kiss like lovers and let us combine like lovers
beneath the light of God’s false eye.