Keep You
My
ribs cut your lamplight into dusty, slanted stripes
The pale
sternum caging split shadows and dissected beams
My
thumbs
Press your thumbs
Into my pulse
(ruby-throated
flutter, my flicker-spark)
Time
hovers in the space between
Our bodies and the bed
I'm
not sure that I'm here
Until you trap that thin rhythm and cram
it, crushed,
Into the hollow space against my heart
We
sink, and in bites and bruises,
You sign your name
I lean into
the starry spindrift, arching
Slumped,
we settle
And, idly, I wonder
If I can keep you