For Lynn Xu THIS IS THE WAY THE SUN LEAVES US A love language is more than two things Here are some words I borrowed about you Here is a dialect I made out of owl pellets Time is something measured like doorways or flour The between of then (lilies) and now (lavender) Memory is tasting iron and feeling like pennies I was doing so well --- Things happen in lines and enjambments I’ll see your Cassiopeia and raise you one Big Dipper I like for things to be there without having to be told why This is the way 4:30 looks in winter This is the way blue feels --- When I read your mind I read in paragraph form Come constellate within you I would love to --- I tallied all the times we kissed The times I said goodbye to your cheeks with my lips You used to speak in equations To the faces of the faceless To dead ends You used to twirl your pen along your fingers like five little monkeys Valentines Day: I love you to Reese’s --- She likes album covers with houses on them She likes to know she’s not the only concrete angel So he bought her a star --- If this is the place you think it is there will be a tower If this is the place you think it is you’re probably right --- On Tuesdays we crave chickpeas Do you remember the way it felt to lose a tooth Biting into ice cream with your incisors Tasting pennies down the spine --- I like to dance around the edges I like to dance around things You like my floral It reminds you of spring Oh, that’s funny It reminds me of the sea What is Hmm What is The sea --- I read do not touch the same time I heard someone say I do not speak French I looked the moment it drained from 7 to 6 and felt I could relate Boys smell better when they smell like smoke Nice is fine but it’s boring --- All my tea bags are blue or should I say all my tea bags come in blue wrapping This poem is blue or should I say this is a poem that comes in blue wrapping --- I’m not talking about veins I’m talking about road maps more specifically: detours The things we mistake other things for You smell like a crayon I mean you smell like pastel wax Not_my_problem My_problem_ She_will_be_insane --- What is a myth and what is a person that lives in it What is an upside-down coat hanger --- I am trying to perfect my autograph I am trying to sign my name But it came out etch-a-sketch I decided to use this time to craft my specialty What is a specialty? Better yet What is mine? --- Never write a poem with linoleum in it You can’t touch the words that belong to themselves --- The iguanas have their own matrix Things to do not come back until we remember them You can notice anything and see it anywhere like Hemingway or Versailles I guess coincidences exist outside of us I guess the universe was made for other things --- What do iguanas look like? I mean it, draw one. This is the way a burn flakes This is the way you shave potato freckles Temporality is living everywhere at the same time We remain in a perpetual 9:30 --- How do you imagine your own disaster? One time I had a dream that my dad got sucked in by a tornado and I wanted to go after him but couldn’t I remember him being okay My mother used to be so dehydrated she would eat pretzels just to remember to drink When I heard eating watermelon seeds would turn you into a tree I swallowed popcorn kernels because I wanted to be the next thing Do you dream in tidepools Or do they dream you in salt water mason jars Is there some sort of phenomenon to explain How the life gets --- I like to read out loud I like the sound of my reading voice Unwrap, slip between the teeth, repeat Yes, I’m still talking Yes, Here I am It takes a moment for the eyes to adjust It takes another to see italics up close The take-offs used to be more of a big deal --- Who are you When I am the only one in this? When did the sun and you become two different people? Who gave the warm permission To be so intimate With my cheek flesh? --- Phobias are things that come back when you throw boomerangs into lineage To be shipwrecked is wanting to be known without realizing you already are Don’t you wish you could be too soft? One of these days the sun will set And we will not have to turn The lights on
