+ Seven Sins in the Shape of a Silkworm

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Seven Sins in the Shape of a Silkworm

I say your name
and my heart blossoms:
Baraka

I've known you for 4,000 years
a day, seventeen minutes and
five seconds
before this human flesh
we were hot ash
a secret lovers two favorite songs
in succession on dusty vinyl
a first kiss under moon's careful watch
an avalanche
stones skimmed in game across
a creek's surface
we were tombstones and burial
a jewel in the crown of Nefertiti
believing in nameless gods
and the spirit of jesus in a horseshoe
we were myth
passed around fire cloaked
in the smoke of a peace pipe
do you remember how we held
each other back then?

in cold empty evening
it's the simple nest of your arms
cross hatched across bare belly
pink crooked tongue
misplaced cheek
stain under nail
what the brain choses to hold to
what the body aches for
early mornings smell of pending sun
and small things crawling
under earth's skin
all living creatures desire
the bee spreads pollen
crickets sinewy strings
ants marching diligent as we play
Sunday morning on repeat
reduced to wet openings and limbs
notice my mouth, a beating shrine
keeper of ghosts
and other hauntings
sing my name into eardrum
let it unfurl slowly like a sad hymn
I am looking for your next incarnation
make it a surprise

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