chromatographics

gay poems by mb bischoff

#fire

2 poems

AS 21

if you’re hearing this, it’s ’cause i trust you. there’s a lot of detail, high resolution scans.

i take an early flight. nothing good is easy. what am i forgetting? chocolate orange peels.

i program on the airplane to distract from humming in my eardrums; an engine whirring to life in my chest.

she applies the night before risks her body just for more. she knows she has to see it before i remember my face.

jetway’s made of glass, eyes have steel blades. what am i forgetting? 54-inch red shoelace.

“do you want to get the fuck out of this airport?” she picks up both bags before i can say a word.

she borrows a tapedeck. i hold her knee. is this ok? the postal service can’t ship this in a flat rate box.

distance desires ritual we find a matchbook what am i forgetting? ashen coffee. burning.

the next thing i know we’re at the terminal. lipstick can stain more than cardboard cups

time stopped in total: 14 hours, 28 minutes

bonfire

we spin on turntables gift-wrapped bubbles plotting high treason

one query hangs on a hook near my thigh “how do you want to feel?”

you produce three words two supple, one sharp relaxed. caregiven. surrender.

we better not have another handle’s cold to the touch i hold your hand for warmth

fetching a towel and water unfamiliar closet and faucet you aren’t used to this, are you?

inside these walls, a forest i lead you down the worn path to a fire blazing at the center

it’s just us dancing there — adjust angles, rhyme rhythms dig holes with feet and fingers

you haven’t visited in years moonlight in an empty room i’ve never been, but will again

draw maps into memory twist silver, pink, and blue the way back is circular