Pond Building

I bit your apples once before.

How young was I this time?

Odd thinking our bodies as building

sky scrapers. The next day, I woke,

rubbed my sour rib bones, 

felt their crossbeams bowing

under weight your storm clouds created.

Can't stop thinking

these big bad wolf things,

their tight itchy necks thirsty in the summer heat.

Feel this, I say and press your fingers on my carotid artery. You nod.
I say, I think about you purely in a way.

You waited for me to say what kind of way.

Then the moment pasted into another

another room

back of the house where the air had a hard time circulating.

I spent the next two days on my knees

scissors

cutting past tenses

out of the rug.

Cut the skin between thumb and index towards the end, a deep hole

it was either paint in the wound or clotted quickly

It's dark now

I cannot see the moon

from the bay window behind my eyelids

but smell your snowy name here

Would you let an animal in your kitchen? You ask.

Would you let me in the kitchen? I ask.

 Forgive my manners, I haven't eaten words with my elbows down since last November.

You are cracking eggs,

bacon grease,

morning coffee,

catch your death

hardwood in the kitchen

where we waited out 20 below

February

naked or wrapped in sheets.

II.

Where did my Exlax go, he asked coming to bed.

Have I already forgotten his name?

When he started snoring, I got up.

They were two first names like Ryan Ryan.

I open the garage fridge.

There is a bottle of Worchestire on the middle shelf

stains set into the crisper from grape soda split months ago.

I shut the door.

I control something.

There once was a Roman Emperor who, poised by his mistress

after eating hemlock painted figs, said, I feel. I felt.  

Twenty minutes later, I drop the tea kettle, boiling water down my leg,
pond building

by the stove, I slide down, sit on the floor. Only slightly red skin.

Is this what feeling looks like?

It reminded me of the time

you held my hand

under the facet

for a long time, it wasn't that long, but it felt

touch

You are touching my hand I thought.