# #lights

10 poems

## [the zig zag cafe](https://chromato.graphics/the-zig-zag-cafe)

mb + [ClaireViolet](https://claireviolet.cv/)

switchback stair  
market manicules  
labyrinth reveal  
a hanging garden

third place jazz  
no reservations?  
but what were we  
before ourselves

finishing a talk  
with your sister  
a tinctured fire  
fluid solidifies

all black pupils  
sadist’s leaning  
considering want  
freepouring both

lamplight yellow  
redlight therapy  
shaken & stirred  
cry our eyes out

point of returns  
now that we know  
the place’s ours  
last words echo.

## [photobooth](https://chromato.graphics/photobooth)

shoes stick to the floor,  
we wander past the bar  
into a dim red-lit lounge.  
pinball, locked door, you.  
you’re a seeing machine.  
pull your curtain closed—  
shroud us in secrets that  
end just above our waist.

tap on a train faregate,  
a beep reminds us that  
transportation isn’t free,  
a short trip still costs us.  
you’re a seeing machine.  
see what we’re made of.  
we’re trapped here now,  
we can’t hide from flash.

all whirring and waiting.  
don’t know how long ’til  
our capture, our release.  
we kiss from impatience.  
you’re a seeing machine.  
our mouths are blurring,  
hands in hair, bite marks  
in flesh. we have no time.

falling back into the light.  
was there music before?  
we lean against the box,  
we cannot lose contact.  
you’re a seeing machine.  
you take time to develop.  
wait here: a strip will fall.  
freeze us in four frames.

![Black-and-white four-frame photobooth strip of two people kissing.](https://chromato.graphics/_astro/photobooth.CBK1CijU_Z184ngP.webp)

## [violet](https://chromato.graphics/violet)

your aperture narrows  
as _f_ /our voices deepen  
sunlight burns through  
exposed cloth shutters

we made you to protect  
an us we never realized  
would be safe as she is  
it’s no decorative pansy

darkrooms reveal stains  
& splatters under safety  
lightbulb, glowing ruby  
our eyes don’t adjust yet

we have twins, don’t we?  
is it sisters, not twins?  
god, no that’s a different  
flower entirely — rosemary

## [use](https://chromato.graphics/use)

craving total transformation,  
identity a disposed wrapper.  
becoming a vessel for want,  
glass poured into, overfilled.

you haven’t been here lately.  
something in our combining  
always begins this reaction:  
photochemical excited state

learning how to spark again —  
days ago: gel, pumps, bulbs,  
rattling pill bottles and nerves,  
black gloves, gold foil, silicone.

it’s warmed up enough already.  
don’t ask or guess — just _know_.  
take a part you claim as yours,  
shape it to your pleasure. use.

time stutters; the gears grind  
forward under prying pressure.  
repairing hidden mechanisms,  
counting every beat yourself.

disappearing deconstruction:  
ripped apart by heat and light,  
shredded into a thousand tiny  
pieces of steel. shrapnel blast.

there is stillness in oblivion,  
peace made in the darkness.  
clenched fists, soaked linen.  
i swear. i won’t move. i can’t.

## [wrist](https://chromato.graphics/wrist)

i clocked the watch once  
and wished its red hand  
swept across your face  
i knew i’d want the date

i saw the toy’s hallmark  
that predates its maker  
cupid’s bow pointillism  
it looked best in color

i slipped on a staircase  
tripped on slippery oak  
fell into a concrete pool  
cut and bruised joints

you caught me there  
held me — rubbed salt  
into my fresh wounds  
to heal and to hurt me

a thin black strap is all  
that holds back the sun  
when this camera falls  
it’ll leak light forever

three solid bands form  
an unbroken bracelet  
brass never gleamed  
until becoming a label

holding mine down  
against white silk,  
gray wool, graffiti  
it’s easy to go deep

## [mirror](https://chromato.graphics/mirror)

i’m sorry i bumped into you.  
i thought you were a mirror.  
your clear surface showed  
what they saw of me then.

parties are meant for diffusion,  
but we focused instead.  
twisting the lens to almost  
make out what was there.

i’m sorry i couldn’t touch you.  
i thought you were a mirror.  
i feared leaving greasy prints  
for everyone to see.

museums of mailboxes and phones  
reveal past and future connections.  
a present —  
behind smudged display glass.

i’m sorry you didn’t see me  
waving at you in the city.  
i thought you were a mirror.  
you weren’t yet waving back.

being gay is hard sometimes.  
hotel bathrooms get steamy,  
you can’t always get the right angle  
before the image blurs.

i’m sorry we were interrupted.  
i thought you were a mirror.  
i never dreamed anyone would  
walk through it and shatter the glass.

i need to move but i can’t sleep.  
some things aren’t done yet.  
i’m hiding from sunrise, from men,  
under blankets and cardboard towers.

i’m sorry i looked so long.  
i knew you were a mirror,  
but i couldn’t spot the vanishing point.  
some reflections distort; yours perfects.

## [readwrite](https://chromato.graphics/readwrite)

have you ever  
had a girl cause  
engineering  
just for it, though

weeks of design  
on a one-off  
built for the thing —  
to program it

on the airplane  
commit to it:  
make it perfect,  
then install it

when you get there,  
show it slowly  
touch a curved shape  
feel its edges

unarchive it  
press it with force  
watch it open,  
animated

every app must  
have its settings  
even if they  
never vary

have you ever  
caused a toy to  
glow from within  
white light blinking

when you read it  
you can see it:  
why it matters,  
what you’ll put there

have you ever  
caused a thing to  
strip itself bare  
kernel panic!

this will only  
take a second,  
last a lifetime  
deep within you

type it all out  
hold it down now  
your domain, name  
hit the button

have you ever  
felt an object  
as it’s written  
becoming yours

## [eigengrau](https://chromato.graphics/eigengrau)

the only way to ignore  
the sunrise is to close  
our eyes at daybreak

white light pours through  
delicate curtain lace—  
an unseen ocean roiling

more to see and to say  
as blue waves beckon,  
calling toward tomorrow

but no matter what we try,  
there’s no true darkness.  
light seeps in everywhere

the shade we find there  
feels almost ultraviolet;  
we see it together, apart

in separate beds, rooms  
on opposed coasts, we  
conjure the same cosmos

this color could be our own.  
when other lovers see it too,  
do they know we bathe in it?

## [nude](https://chromato.graphics/nude)

back then, i saw your body just on screens —  
pinpricks of light transferred across the line.  
soft curves and folds, i felt you in my dreams;  
those pictures, now, are burned into my mind.

and then i touched your silken skin at last,  
traced these lines with red ink until they dripped,  
gripped thighs while kissing slow, then hard & fast,  
embraced to warm the places we had stripped.

but now i’m separated from your touch,  
yearning for the ways we fit, like jigsaw  
pieces you never need to force too much.  
despite it all : _i’m here. i won’t withdraw._

you’re nude before my eyes, no matter where.  
i’ll drink you up and leave them none to spare.

## [birdcage](https://chromato.graphics/birdcage)

you ask me if i’m okay  
⸻ with elevators?  
which strikes me odd,  
the way your eyes do

we board & take flight  
to the control room, 42  
teacups on brass hooks  
carefully cluttered views

press my buttons, down  
with the same force you  
use to operate machines.  
the right pressure matters

the doors close around  
your fingers, lights flicker  
surging harnessed power  
i can’t look away, i won’t

we fall together back to  
earth where we stumble  
into your unmarked van.  
click of clear recognition

the next time i step into  
your cage you kiss my  
eyes closed and pull a  
lever  
          that  
                  **stops**  
                             time

we’re suspended⸺ trapped  
in moments of wrought iron  
pressed against their grates  
and each other’s full frames

             for as long  
             as we are,  
             we get to  
             be happy