The Gallery

I slept next to your broken wrist and dreamt

I was a vine

That grew out of a lover's kiss and wrapped around your spine.

Will you stay in my life?

I wish we were tied together sometimes.

Entwined by a family wine.

I wish I was your sister sometimes like tonight.

I'd dry your eyes,

You'd cough and then smile

And say you'd be all right.

Will you be all right?

I’d trace the tattoo on the back of your neck,

There's a picturedrawn there of the place you left,

Where you cannot see it but you can forget.

It’s there permanently like a badge of regret.

There’s a row of ocean shells where there should be a garden.

One for each whispered word you could tell me,

One for each secret.

So on shell stars in a dirt sky,

I wish you’d trade your secrets for mine.

I’d plant them and in time

Flowers would bloom and burst through the room where we’d lie,

They’d cover our eyes,

I’d be that vine,

The sun would shine in an endless springtime.

But for now the flower pots only hold

cigarette-butts.

There’s a headstone above the nights we talked.

There’s a different name whispered in your yard

But it sounds the same as the one you want,

And now I feel do overwhelmed,

I had to sit out by myself

On the curb beside your house,

With my collar in my mouth.

And the feeling that I felt,

I had to lay them all out

In chalk-writing on the ground,

For you to step around.

And the rain that ends the drought

And would’ve let our seeds sprout

will just wash my words out.

Just wash my words out.