two girls swim in sunset bisque

wheeling a bike with shattered spokes. twin

apparitions, they drift by, lit

in soft orange—a momentary melange

of bruised knees, wet eyes, inflamed

gravel-scratched arms
overlaid, that dusty negative: rollerblades

scraping down the hot streak of first avenue,

your feral rattling laugh as

my knee unzips

on summer-baked tar 
arid atoms of earth. squashed darts

caught in hair. your hands, powdered

with mammee noodle-salt, holding the gash

shut, steady. blood webbing

over our pinafores, over flesh

a baptism that binds

disparate matter     into one 
how do I disinfect these

phantom wounds    protect against

all this useless

tactile knowledge

of a stranger