Our Bones Ache Only While the Flesh is Still On Them

Rain is falling outside the window and off of my face

It feels like I never stopped

He sits next to me gently–

//

In this wetness my body has begun rotting in places 

Your eyes biting into the parts still ripe enough for teeth

Your lips taking everything but the bruised bits

Juice wiped with the back of a hand–

//

Another drop down my face

He kisses my tears away tenderly, don’t cry

You look beautiful–

//

I always want to go back 

I’m forever finding ways to hurt the moon

That time when I was still meat too fresh for the flies– 

//

More kisses move from

my forehead to my

cheeks to my

lips to my jaw to keep

going–

//

Girl, I’d write to you

Do you remember the boys who threw

The picked apart peach pits over

The fence to hit you 

In a game, their laughter reigned 

Down like they’d already learned what 

It is to be a powerful man–

//

His hands kindly take clothing 

I didn’t know I wanted off

This is intimacy 

This is comfort

Be intimate 

Be comforted–

//

This gentleness they show you comes from

The hand that knows touch comes easy 

When you start slow

How does a poisonous pit protect its flesh?–

//

And the words he whispers are said with our bodies

I love you

He takes a bite of fruit I didn’t know I had left

I want you

//

This body of mine grows lust in others

Insipid desire cut from me too young–

//

There’s an ache under my kissed

Ribs after he leaves my bedroom– 

//

Girl who believed in the kindness of men

The only tenderness you will get is when

You are being tenderized– 

//

Look at the empty bed you laid in

This is a man’s love