you’re there in the way that she holds me
she wraps her body around me
buries her face in the nape of my neck
i think of your perfectly shaped head
rounded like a ripe orange
nestled between branches
i pull her closer into me
breathe in her scent
and pretend i’m not thinking
about how you felt like an eternal summer
but her body is a good placeholder
we gasp and moan and fuck
and i start to forget how different
her curves and edges feel
i can’t trace the deep arch in her back
with eager fingertips
i can’t see the divine features
of athena or another marble body
she isn’t all thigh and hip and bend
and love love love
i start to forget she will
never caress my fears
the way you did
never peer through the silk-spun curtains
i hide so far behind
yet she takes me somewhere
warm and dimly lit
that smells like pine and crisp dew
when she pulls away from my lips
and gazes into my eyes
she has a rusty pair of scissors
and she’s tearing through
the fabric of everything i know
i want to toss her aside
cut her loose
but all i can do is lie here aching
for sweet fruit, a needle and thread
the three things
i think i need
to mend the spaces in between