Different kinds of tired

 

All day at the beach sleepy

My wet hands on your warm skin

Salty hair knotting under sugary scented shampoo

Bed sheet tides pulling and pushing against our stomachs

Mermaid dreams

 

Milky tired

Early nights beneath a dying twilight

A dizzy gaze on your spinning smile

            Am I getting sick?

Light bones

Melting eyelids

Warm sheets

            Why are your hands so cool?   

Buzzing

Sleep.

 

Drowsy car rides.

            You could never hum in tune with the radio. 

Windowpane pillows for flushed cheeks

Seatbelt tugs

            Your heavy head hurts my shoulder. 

Streetlight colors underneath my eyelids

Waking up.

Where are we?

 

Home from a midnight pool run

Lost night minutes buried within my mascara streaks

            Is the moon chasing us?

            Don’t follow the moon.

                        I’ll take you home.

Shampooing in the dark

            I’m right here.

Drowning into chlorine dreams

            Your hair still smells.

 

Someone trimmed summer’s backyard when I wasn’t looking.

Someone took the swing set down.

            Put it back please.

Someone wilted all the dandelions.

            I want another wish.

Someone took away my hot summer nights.

            The car-light shadows dissolving on your face

            Your sweaty head on my pillow

Summer is a half-finished secret.

            Could you ever stay awake past 1 am? 

            Can much sun can I hold until it bleeds and leaks through my fingers?

What other kinds of tireds can I have with you?

 

Too many to count

 

Maybe, I ought to remember the ones I’ve already had with you, brother.

            Let me write them down.

            I love them.

                        I love you.