TIMING

nighttime, the car chugged along the one fifty-four
cutting straight through the Santa Inez mountains.

we were twenty minutes away from the freeway,
sixty-seven until we arrived at his parent’s place

but he was tired. it was almost two am. 
we pulled over to take a nap but instead

he took me onto his lap and pushed the lever
so that the seat slid back. we messed with the

buttons and the zippers until our bottom halves
were bare except for our soles. eight hours later,

standing in his childhood kitchen, I asked his mom
for a band-aid. the movement of our bodies had rubbed 

the edges of my right knee completely raw. she asked me
what had happened. I told her that I’d fallen.  

TEN TOW TRUCKS 'TIL DESIRE

the lights canvas the sound & on this bus with 
a view, I clutch my purple yoga mat. the other 
night I walked into the reading & there you were.
once upon a time I believed in fate, but it’s been

years since I got on my knees at any church. 
you see, the first bite of an apple is never 
enough. sometimes when I walk into the salt
water I want it to pull me under, but when I feel

the rattle of the subway train I make myself
step back. I don’t remember being baptized. 
I was blonde then. when I used to paint my nails,
I would always color outside the keratin. too many

blue smudges & I was done. in a past life, I was
a crow winged courtesan. I’d even pull my own hair,
if you asked politely. still, there are spots below each of
my hips that want to be gripped. when I was seven

I tried to dive, but instead I flopped, ten feet of air
& then my belly blossoming red. tomorrow is the
full moon, perhaps in my next life I will run naked
& wanton beneath a graveyard of ancient stars.