# #water 5 poems ## [no](https://chromato.graphics/no) do i have to belt you? to overcome a bubbling or are my words enough to staunch the flowing from leaking fountains pleasure is never free, even when it is a gift. beg me with honeysuckle pollination. allergies. only believe in denial. muscle tension, hunger. dew’s wetter than rain. desperate questions tie barricade tape tighter. no. a complete sentence the longer we wait here clock hands move slowly waiting, praying on the dripping limestone tile a sacrifice in purpose. release is for the weak but you are strong, no? every drop metered out. are you grasping at it? there isn’t a shortage. don’t ask me again, now you know my answer love age years in the bottle our flavor concentrates only believe in denial. ## [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 ## [bonfire](https://chromato.graphics/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 ## [steps](https://chromato.graphics/steps) now please, sit back stretch out your legs relax awhile — furniture begs pull off your boots i’ll kneel below slip off your socks and take it slow bare both your soles flex all ten toes your footstool’s goal: to be repose our arches meet — my back, your curve almost so much i don’t deserve a faint perfume teases my nose the smoothest skin so rarely shows i’ll work them deep with oiled hands their perfect forms each digit fanned red lacquered nails command my eyes and higher heels you’ve made me buy bare, they stay – no decoration focus trained on adoration pressed on my face i’ll kiss you there and lick the base become ensnared kick or trample i’ll take the pain with shoes sampled my body strains pleads for pressure that space between — the greatest pleasure: touch from the queen release the jewels that flood within wetness pools on shining skin ## [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?