Learning pronouns

I scalded my throat on the heat of the ocean

Swallowed my childhood up in a second

And wanted to keep it

Like a selfish lion-tamer

Sleeping at the foot of the animal’s cage

Feeding it star light/galaxy light

With a spoon

You’re like the ink spreading inside a pen

Waiting to gush out, to become distorted,
Waiting to touch all sides of the world

You’re like a dictionary of words

Everyone wants to own

He is playing chess with the rain

The roof of a car is an audience

He might have been made to invent names for colors
But he will never know
He might be let loose and lost

She fell in love with a box of charcoal

WIth her fingers dipped in ash – she planted

Headaches in her garden,

Her broken ankle healed as she looked to the top

Of the mountain through her basement window

It is a world of walnut shells and

spider nests, lost keys and found smoke

it spins faster than a laundromat

Nobody knows what to call it

So it falls to the ground with a thud
Nobody keeps it entertained so it falls asleep
And stays asleep like a stainWe burry our eyes in sand

We make forts out of blankets and heavy

Ancient books and hide from our flesh
And blood to hold hands in the warm dark
And to kiss awkwardly
You were only you
Now you are what everyone wants you to be
They punctured pomegranate seeds
And taught each other how to let go of fish

without hurting their mouths
they held each other clasped
tight like particles of blood