after Toni Morrison
something about the color of the sky
before the lights go out
makes me remember your eyes with my hands
and want them, the way
they flutter like beads
when a bracelet is torn open
and scatter like rays of light in broken eyes
and here I was, thinking
it wasn’t possible to be loved and heartbroken at once
You’re burning in the heat of your own light
and I’m stuck piecing your ashes back together
it’s hard enough to touch you, seething
don’t tear me apart as well
glass beads, easy, lying,
the skin-deep kind of deceptive
You think you see right through them
pure honesty is scary, You think
well, here’s something you don’t know about me:
I love you so much I get nightmares sometimes and
isn’t that a little scary too?
how sour and stinging it must be
to dissolve someone
when their
arm is around your shoulder
how slippery the floor must be
to wash the memories of Girl down the drain
when her eyes avoid contact with yours
yet stare so close they could be
your own
but how sweet You must feel
to have that kind of power in the first place
how sweet You must feel
how Beloved.