white shoulders,

collar bones made of stardust.

the ridges of a spine

traced up and down

the surface of your universe.

underneath jawlines

were kisses of a bruised porcelain.

your fingers touched the milky way

while your hair tangled around comets.

your pupils were each a blackhole,

and your irises were exploding stars.

your mouth was every bitten tongue

you had ever reversed.

the goosebumps on your skin

were craters in your heart.

the tinge of your lips

pulled me apart.

i never understood

how heads could become naked

but you looked at me

as if you could read everything inside of me.

your kiss touched my skeleton.

sometimes, your nails ripped out my organs,

and sometimes, your fingers sewed up my gashes.

your eyelashes fluttered against my cheek,

your laugh echoed like the sea,

and you looked to me like you were lost to gravity.

our galaxy anatomy always shook me,

always took me.

you hid your scrapes and bruises so well,

you hid your starlight and your dark nights

and sometimes at morning light,

i could see the sight of your demanding heights.

together, the universe took apart every single cell of ours

and laid them side by side.

we tried to love them

and finally understood

how heads could be naked

between covered heartbeats.

if was like every concealed look

had never been wasted,

every lovely thought

had never been covered,

but instead locked inside our chests.

kiss me, you daring vine of veins,

twisting across the universe.

i love your head

more than i love your skeleton

and no oblivion

will ever take that from me.

(how do you describe it?

you see the ocean’s waves

but not the blood underneath it)