Tasting the Colours of Ice

Lightshade, Nightshade.

I am ashamed to have seen

the white veil before the

oil-slick of black underneath-

but we kept our feathers

clean and bloodred and

raw

by pulling in, pushing

down every drop of the

sickly iridescence

that fell like acid

rain from broken ships.

Stay with me and please

do not run as my fist forms

do not recoil as the

waves recoil as they bruise

the shoreline, trailing

ribbonlike indentions of

frothy fingers pulling out,

pushing out breaths

from a dead man's

chest. I am endlessly

sorry that there is so much

slippage

in the air and

in our startled

hummingbird hearts.

Hold me between your teeth

and light me slowly with

scintillating glances and

lightly parted lips

red from kisses and

breathe me in to keep me

like a sparrow in your lungs.