R u m m y   P a r k

b y   R e b e c c a   L u   K i e r n a n


4.  Listen
 
I tell my lover
Between sweat-glistened periwinkle sheets
And the translucent excuse of sleep,
Beneath the blue-black bruise of night,
Through the paralyzing web of what I have been
To a defeated army of men,
An extinct species of butterfingered apes
Who never mastered fire.
 
I tell my lover after a giggly dance in the park
In the sideways rain,
I tell him in the lavender shadow of dreams,
Under the pink-grey splinters of moon
Through French lace curtains
That freckle him
As starlight fingers impenetrable galaxies,
I tell my lover
Beyond comets that threaten
To crush out life,
Parallel universes where we never will meet,
And lost worlds below.
 
I tell my lover
As his heart drums against my face,
As bees converge on the window box
Where the dragon lily grows.
I tell myself.
Now everyone knows.