Her words float like butterflies
In the vacuum of my mind
Painting pictures in the dark
Spiraling upward to the vault
Of my being
Spreading wide,
They display
The intimate patterns and clashing colors
As if we were painted
On their wings

Her kiss is the start
Of an avalanche
Yet each shred of laughter
Is the crackle of a boot
On the snow
Sliding downhill
Her whispers disturb
The chilling air
Her words are a snowy fox printing its paws
Onto the snow
The bleached version of
My beating heart

My blood rushes
Through my unconscious body
As slick rivers of crimson ribbon
Volcanoes erupt
Beneath my cheeks shooting
Diamonds out of my pores
Crushing with the pressure beneath the earth
Is the fright to call
To dial
The numbers, each button a shift
In my core

I reach when away from her
A fish meandering
In currents
At the depths of the open ocean
Pulled up by her
The crest
Of a white washed wave
And dragged under
By the rip-current of her
Death inspiring absence

I bud new affection
With her love –
My springtime catharsis
And I flower
In the summer to dance in her hair
With the beat of our song
When we lie together
Roots entwined
Sinking down into the earth
As one

We are as the arctic tern
Gusting
Into the open sky sowing
Through the air without breath
Journeying a thousand leagues
To rest
On the sand scattered shores
Each grain a token
Of my love for her.