Territory is suburbia is an atlas of orange-bricked battlelines.

Where driveway mouths spit mortar like broken teeth and cold wars cauterise domestic skin.

This is where I have mapped you. 
                                              mango pulp

                                              bruise-lidded sky

                                              a storm hymnal
When the sky bleeds out of this heat blister, it will wash away nothing.

Passionfruit will lay defeated by the fence. Territorial birds will remain the aggressors.
                                              noisy miner

                                              mynah bird, mickey

                                              flick-flit dancer
I meet you at your depth and let your breath push blood around my body.

We make an ampersand of arms and legs and you whisper “this is not a safe distance”.
                                              first star

                                              cicada thrum

                                              open-mouthed kiss
I remember thinking that forever might feel like this – eyelid-crepe delicacy (my lips),

ear lobe softness (your teeth).

A cup of tea gone cold beside my shoes. 
                                              lights off

                                              snap-blink greyscale

                                              lips to cheek to neck to lips
Somewhere, a casement window bangs.

First I taste blood then the thick blade of storm-metal.

In the kitchen, AM radio makes leaf-litter conversation.
                                              second innings

                                              last session before tea

                                              willow-faced tock
You leave the garden hose running in the afternoon rain.

Yesterday, curled up in the letterbox.

Leatherwood pleasure is folded in a pocket, in a dovecote, in a crowded space.
                                              rain comes

                                              arrhythmic shrapnel

                                              tin-tin-tin
                                                                                            rain goes

                                                                                   downpipe-tick

                                                                                 melaleuca-drip
Territory is suburbia is an atlas of orange-bricked battlelines.

Where cyclone wire fences protect us from nothing.

Unsolicited mail keeps coming.

I can always find your hand in the dark.
                                              cane-toad skin

                                              bitumen bite

                                              evaporation