We wanted to feel             ancient             we pretended
            it was a solution            based on no evidence
twisted stars             to rope                 strung the porch
            reverent     we held onto that                        fire 
I remember thinking                         this night is a poem                        

I was unprepared to write                          certain emotional faculties            
            weren’t developed so that                         when I
tried                         to talk about                         crystal lattice
            of love             that has drawn my soul to yours                        
& affixed it             to this firmament                         of human

interactions             I ended up saying something                         
            Did you see how fast that car was going?                         
I didn’t have a pen             I wrote it down                 with my fingers
            on your back to make it             harder                         to forget
or, once forgotten            that much more tragic                 decoding

my own heart             has become a full time job &
            I’m pretty terrible             at it                 the factory is             closing
I     could bury my nose in your hair             find myself
            shocking                  this blue world maybe             our sentimentality
is wired            to be                         visible                         only in the past

it’s late             June                         we’re one chance            
            that one stranger             might               change classifications
step                         into the light                          there’s             so much
            we have in common sometimes             we hold            
the sky                        deep in our lungs but             it’s hard             not to let go

I had to renounce             the birds                  they             cluttered
            my insides              still I was grateful            I made them a nest
I placed it gently             by the overhang             where it is            
            still    maybe we’re always     standing outside                  that grocery
on the corner at Simpson             waving                         to anyone who passes