Time is so unfortunately linear, 
and I’ve just realized all my first dates have been in movie theaters.
The earthquake tremors in your chest 
the wildfire heat in your cheeks
Iced over by the midnight drafts and lapis 
dark.
There’s salt and sugar in the 
ocean air
Frosted cornflowers push between your slim fingers, 
laced with hers.
You’re small as a blueberry 
in greedy, zealous hands, 
dripping green.
Lips bitten to bruise,
Crushed plum and violet.
Pushed too far, 
not far enough.
Reel in the injured boys who missed their chance, 
Fail to pack their hungry wounds that 
gape and cry and beg.
Lose your grip on the pufferfish girls,
Watch them buck and scatter, 
whinny on the wind.
Try to sink your roots into pomegranate velvet, 
Blue ash
Just to sicken under the emerald chewing, 
the gouges
Marked in tattoo tunnels when your bark sloughs down.
Stretch up, 
twirl in the pink-tiled bathroom,
Crunch through kernels in your big red boots.
Try and look a tulip sun in the eyes.
Beauty- 
your scars reflect the light.