watermark

i count to three and grin
you smile and let me in
we sit and watch the wall you painted purple
speech will spill on space
our little cups of grace
but pauses rattle on about the way that you cut the snow-fence,
braved the blood,
the metal of those hearts that you always end up pressing your tongue to
how your body still remembers things you told it to forget
how those furious affections followed you

i've got this store-bought way of saying i'm okay,
and you learned how to cry in total silence
we're talented and bright
we're lonely and uptight
we've found some lovely ways to disappoint,
but the airport's almost empty this time of the year,
so let's go play on a baggage carousel
set our watches forward like we're just arriving here
from a past we left in a place we knew too well