i slept next to your broken wrist and dreamt i was
a vine that grew out of a lovers' kiss and wrapped around your
spine.  will you stay in my life?  i wish we were tied together some-
times.  entwined by a family line.  i wish i was your sister some-
times 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 tatoo
on the back of your neck, there's a picture drawn there of the
place you left, whre you cannot see it but you can't 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 ve that vine, the sun
would shine in an endless spingtime.  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 so over-
whelmed, i had to sit out by myself on the curb beside your house,
with my collar in my mouth.  and the feelings 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.