Channeled you in the cold of a basement, these fantastic visions
how the small of my back grew a patch of frost, how he touched it
like he loved me.
These fantastic visions,
I could not explain
the things I saw, the specters which haunted me.
They were all my own
metastasized in the time warp downstairs.

They began with the grocery,
the cheese I tried,
the baby’s chubby legs,
that confused look in your eyes.
It was the memories revitalized which always brought on the cold.

Remember,
when we became reptiles, we were lowly
and glared at each other
and went slowly, to the time when we’d become gym floor.

In the visions, I was happy
I was sure of this.
Even the bitter ones were overwhelming joy.
They started with the grocery story
ended in the place behind the dresser
when he’d looked at me and told me he was in love
and lamented in his love,
but I'd never thought of those things
and suppose I still do not.

Remember,
the road which seemed some streetlight heaven
before we’d retreat to the basement.
It was colors on the windshield all the way down,
evaporating in the raindrops,
and those visions prefacing what was left of my time there.
Those lights swam in the raindrops
and colored his face red.
I’d touch his cherry cheeks
to love him,
my fingers stained in an auburn mess when I finally pulled them away.
Him smiling, like the first vision
I would have the next winter.