your skin hangs off your bones
like streamers off the ceiling
like wilted flowers from their stems

your eyes are huge and grey
like smoky clouds dashed across the sky
like orbs of slate

(i saw your secrets written in them)

your lips are red
like the carmine center of fleshy cherries
like the rich scarlet of a heart

your fingers are fragile
like the friable soil from which life grows
like a tiny bird who knows nothing but the sky

(if you fly you’re sure to fall)

you dance like a sunflower
bending and twisting
to face the sun

you love like a dew drop
clinging and holding
to my leafy fingers

(but you know you’re not a flower)

you pray when no one is watching
because you don’t want them
to catch your religion

you smile when no one sees
because you don’t want them
to catch your weakness

(you aren’t hiding anything from me)

i love your skin
eyes
lips
fingers

i watch you dance
love
pray
smile

(and when you sleep i hope you see yourself)