T h e   O r i g a m i   o f   S h a d o w s
 
On your blue-black
Batwing fainting couch,
Through the licorice candle's
Dying words,
I learn the origami of shadows.

Under your platinum sharkskin sheets
You paint my pink flesh with invisible ink
To keep me safe from drowning
In that dream lake of amnesiac ghosts
Who rise when they see my face
Reluctant to go to that other place,
Thinking tenderness can be
Unerased.

I learn the bonsai of silence.
I fear the collision of parallel worlds.

I know the stars
Cannot be stopped
By the magic of hands
Or the closing of eyes
Against the other me,
Yet I chew my fingernails
At how beautiful she is
In the light of the man
You also could have been.

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