Affectionate sounded like a disease, lit on fire

So I walked on evening feet and with clear eyes

The night snaked through the grass

The air tasted like blooming bleeding pine trees, syrup on my mourning tongue

Picket fences and slabs of concrete and flowers

And fireflies alight and Wilde 

Names of Death, my dear, futilely erode

And I kissed the headstone with red cherry Chapstick

I’d roll up my sleeves and plunge my hands in deep

Dirt and earth and shredded nail polish

And the stopwatch starts ticking

When the water balloon in my hand turns into a beating heart right

Before I throw it

In my head, your name sounds like songbirds, dying

To see you again, my love, I would give up the tips of my fingers

Graze your cheek again, but I know you don’t feel

You feel the worms and dirt and decay and now my hands leaving your face

I would lay down here with you, my darling, but it is so cold

No excuse, but you are so cold

Wind whooshing through my unkempt hair jolts me back to Saturday

And alas, the red crumbled and fell into my open palms

As I thought of your smile

Your name blurring before me and mixing with the words in my head

I can’t say

So I leave and live before the knife-edge bluegrass can

Pull me down there with you.