i
We begin with a desire to devour.

I am a citizen of want, my body

a country of bruises from your teeth.
I am happy to pay in sweetness

as long as it is you who takes

my lips. Once, upon coming
to a clearing, we hurriedly shed

our clothes, feral things whose

vocabulary knows no waiting.
I am happy to be here before you,

palms up, wanting and being wanted.

Once more, and once again.




ii
Someone once took me to bed

and wanted to fuck in the dark.

I was a body and yet not a body.
Someone mistook me for not being

me when they read my words but forget

my name. Where do I hide my shame?
I was a body and almost somebody.

We damn well know: to be brown is

to always be guilty of being brown.




iii
Who wouldn’t want this,

hands around my throat,

hands that cup my breasts,

hands that grip my hips.
Let me whisper confessions

to the shadows on your skin:

When I see your open mouth
I hear the selfsame howl from

deep in my womb: I am your

leviathan among the woods.




iv
This is what it means to shiver

beneath someone’s gaze,

your possession teaching me

the length of my spine.
Who wouldn’t want you,

telling me you’re home

and safe from standing

before an invisible firing line.
In the subway, at the pharmacy,

at the grocery, in the park:

when have we ever known

what it means to be apart.
No one can stop me

from holding your hand,

not even the demons that

corrupt their heart.




v
Would that there be a menagerie

inside your warm body for every

living thing that you might have been:
the tenderness of a butterfly, perhaps,

or the startling softness of a bird.

A sweet longan.




vi
How do you conjure

an ever after. I wish

nothing more than

to follow where this leads.
Our bodies uncurl from the core

and everything hurts
while we stand in line at the bank,

or when we walk across the street

to get to our door.
When they call you names

or when they call mine,

I will always want you

whispering in my ear:

Why not right here.




vii
Oh, husk that houses who I am!

Almond eyes, thick thighs,
and every ember that has

settled on my dark skin.
I want your wildness—

and damn the rest of them.