how i’ve chiseled away

at a corner of my mind

and shaped it to your voice

so that i may carry it folded there

how my stomach twists

and untwists again

to think of you

thinking of me

how my skin warms pink

and my heart beats crooked

when my name finds time on your tongue,

and how i’ve never wanted it more

than when it parts your lips

how i adore your mind

when it’s working things out

and how you chew your nails—

all the time they spend in your teeth,

how i envy them

how the poetry is yours, always yours

because nothing else is worthy anymore

this pen, these words,

this forfeit of sleep—

how useless it was

without you anyway

how i worship the phones,

the wires, the satellites

that carry you to me

over the miles and miles and miles

and even more than those

how many ways we’ve made love

while i’m lying alone,

eyes open to the night

or while i’m standing in line

clutching cream shelled eggs

and day old bagels,

how i’d rather them be

any sacred piece of you

how i crave, yearn, long for—

even these are not enough—

your fingertips, pressed

to my flesh, giving new purpose to my legs,

claiming my thighs

hungry, ready, waiting

how this soul is become yours

without your asking

shall i tell you

you are the undoing