tyrants

diving for pearls like stars

before they told you that love was/
war - i memorized the shape of, learnt its taste and its texture and its weight against my
tongue/ bound by my teeth and the curls of your skin in gold/
heavy and soft like the bow of your lips and the pressure of your/
ribs: hot and heady and glassy against the whorls in my fingertips from which the oceans steal their tides
and your eyes are bittersweet