Pace

Gone are the days

of innocence

when girls hid their faces

behind closed bedroom doors

and boys looked down at their feet

and wondered about girls’ bedrooms

and hands brushed lightly and then not again

and no one demanded anything of anyone

everything goes so fast now

we took pace for granted and it has no place

in a world where boys look at girls with hunger

in their eyes and

girls reciprocate with malice

contempt

and speed,

speed is all we have

if I were to return to innocence

would you come with me?

would your hands soften and reach out

for me, or the earth or

whatever,

we can have all the time in the world

or we can let the world

consume us. 

Popcorn

i hate it when popcorn gets stuck between your teeth

and you have to reach down deep to pick out the debris

unpopped kernels seeping to the bottom of the bowl

and a lingering doubt

from the moment of the bag,

torn open on the countertop:

was it worth it?

we ate popcorn one night, sitting on my bed.

we were watching a movie

and as I swallowed bits of popcorn you turned to me in the dark

and looked away.

if we dig down deep into the gaping holes of our friendship,

unclog the spaces and pick out the debris,

can we then fill the void with words

fill empty space with sound?

Intimacy

Lying together,                  

limbs splayed haphazardly about

so that one is indistinguishable from the next

our bodies make a pact

and we exchange pieces of our hearts

so that when I get up to leave

I will carry a piece of you

deep inside of me,

an imprint upon the flesh

deep down when only I can sense it.

Lying here,

my breath falling into a syncopated rhythm

with your own,

and too-still limbs equating themselves as one,

the secret of our bodies lies

quiet just beneath the skin

and I know that I will leave

and things will change,

my arms and legs subtracting themselves from

the living whole,

and one day,

someday,

I will break down as all physical systems eventually decompose,

but this piece of you will remain

an impenetrable fortress of its own;

a constant reminder of

tangled hair and clenched fists

and just how far a body will go to find

belonging.