When Love is Not Enough

Be careful; your skeleton
Might jumble those nights when
Your skin feels so loose without
Someone to
Hold            you                together.

So in bed you will hold a body or
Hold an extra pillow
To stop yourself from turning
Too quickly in your sleep
You could lose a rib
Or a femur in that nest of blankets.

Hold a hot water bottle to your burning chest and
Imagine                 a heartbeat
Imagine                 a fever.
Find a person who is like a fever to burn love out
Through your sweaty forehead.
Tell yourself that the fever is love too.
Let the jungle creep over you.

Take an icy shower. Wash weeds away.
Let cold close its fist.
Smirk when someone soft approaches.
Settle like snow
Over a city and feel the boots trudging through you
Chew on              ice shattering in
The glaciers of your mouth and erase the blue from the sky
With a big pink rubber eraser.
Swipe that niggling eraser dust from the page.

Just when you think warmth has seeped away
Those underground springs will rise again
The grass will unfurl
You’ll grow into your bones and

The soft creature in the den will open its eyes
To feel the hunger of springtime.

Artwork by Marina Gonzales