Sugar on the Sheets

These toes are hungry
like new baby birds
uncurled to feed from
my mothering lips
These ankles scatter
from teeth like a herd
they need the friction
of coarse fingertips and

I nurse these nervous legs, take pride in my work
these thighs are twisting their escape from your slip
I speak in tongues because I don't have the words
I breathe religion on your shivery hips

I will decide
You will decide
when you come in
when I come in
my trembling tide
my second skin
I will decide
You will decide
the fall and the rise
of this wondrous sin, yeah

Your eyes are fastened on me, Captain-like, and cruel
my belly/eclipses them in waves of slow air

I try to hold you safe, like Lu in a pool
locking my fingers in your octopus hair
but you won't be stalled
and you won't be fixed
you're trolling your thumbs
up past your ribs
standing me up
scolding their tack
teasing along the sheer of my back
and you're tossing me fore
turning you aft
a tongue to an ear
a port to a raft
a tempestuous pitch
a pummeling pride
the surge of your stitch
your mastering guide

You will decide
I will decide
when I come in
when you come in
my unsettled skin
my second tide
You will decide
I will decide
the fall and the rise
of this wondrous sin

obey the metronome of this breath
and the meter of these teeth
taste the salt in the sweat
and the sugar on
the sheets are keeping time with this breath
and the meter of these teeth
taste the salt in the sweat
and the tempo that we keep the metronome...