Poem for Kiki

don't forget
Breathe breathe
heights where water boils at a lower temperature
the chalky footsteps that recall the dance
you are clean

A long sigh can take days to complete, even then the echoes grate horribly.
Nights that are longer than humanly possible
and end abruptly, swollen until unwieldy in the cobalt
eye of attention, I don't feel enough
until you beat me.

Your physician's hand (hard) on my shoulderblades.
Finally an ear to whisper I've been bad
into and hear the ocean, the social
butterfly unfolding still moist
from the chrysalis.

Babies, you've taken babies and made who know what of them. Goulash?
Dream me in the mucal thickness of alcohol, cure
and wrap my exhalations across your downy arms
if only my sheep nestled on either side of you
my lamb at your teat.

My decreasing indifference has left me susceptible to the virus of feeling.
Under the comforter safety I burrow,
peeling back the tangerines, rind
is bitter, flesh is sweet, my only words of wisdom
for your nightcap.

A woman shouldn't smile like that, so muscular, so slow, so absolute.
 
don't forget
breathe.