LONG-ING

cracking

like my skin that somehow bleeds

as the diamond runs freeze over

and fleets of snow dust the streets

in a town that's quietly waking up

i'm waking up.

day after day

i choose it

i reach for your hand to lift me down out of bed

up from dreams and slamming into my frame

i'm awake.

i step through the day.

and then you,

you find me under lamplight

holding me tightly in a hushed parking lot

this cappuccino boy

has become the eyes that hold mine in silence

the hands that work blood into my feet

pressing veins i didn't know existed

bringing tears i didn't know existed

if we can make wordless rivers of each other's eyes

then where have we been for all of our lives

sparking in my toes, i can write again

melting ice cream from plants between my knees

you press hope into me, and it hurts

as memories unlock from within my body

they lift, and where should they go?

maybe you should restrain my hands before they break a window -

as this surgery drags on for months;

that's why they call it long-ing.