bruises
little marks where your fingers dipped into my skin and left that impression
strong fingers, yours, touching and pressing and guiding my blood, my heartbeat
that heart, that beats to the time set by your own, that quickens when you tap out that pulse
don’t think for a moment that I didn’t notice you tapping out my heartbeat the other night
ear to my chest like you were listening for a storm
you may have heard one, because the way you stir my mind could be likened to hurricanes at the shore
soft, sweeping movements of images traipse through everything I think and they are
all memories of you alone
we together
bruises
where you bit a little too hard as we moved like honey and milk, together and apart
sweet, like every word I think when your eyes are on my mind, watching me
with that same, fond sweetness that glazes over your eyes when I tell you what I mean
when I told you that I loved you yesterday as much as I will love you tomorrow
as much as I will love you three lives from now
bruises
quietly burning fires where your lips and your teeth were too fierce to leave my skin so pale
and blank
changing with the time passed every hour from the first
leaving my body in days or weeks,
antithesis to my heart and my love
that remain and are unchanged by time and passing things
by bitter moments of hurt and pain that give way to the memory that I am yours
there is no memory in the reality you have cemented in me, there is only the
constancy of us
permanent and constantly inflicting saccharine, tender
bruises