readings of my bones

the fall is enough to make me reassess and wonder if I waste my worry on the wrong things. sharp pain asks me to stay where I am: motionless and floating in a haze of analgesics for a day. at midnight they take readings of my bones with the machine, looking through the skin on a screen to figure out what's broken. something near my elbow on both sides. the doctor sits across the bed and tells me there'll be no use going home until I can move myself again. I agree, not wanting to ask someone else to help me bathe or dress or eat. rest and time to heal etc.

the night washes over in glimpses of dark between the beeps and flashes of monitors and vitals measurements. footsteps and whispers down corridors that never sleep. I try to scratch an itch on my cheek. when I wake I wonder what you're doing and if I'll be able to hold you again.

painting with petrichor

the street light flashes on at 6:13pm. from the bus stop I am watching traffic passing under skies tired from crying. a woman sings with one hand on her heart, the other steering off into the right lane. the rattle of the pedestrian button underscores the humming of engines and her rubber tires sliding on freshly watered asphalt. I relish the remains of the clouds, drifting over powerlines away from us into the gold.

petrichor paints the puddles a little softer. pigeons bask in the glow of the taco truck, pecking at their own reflections. I think about your necklace sitting in the shell by my bed. I open the locket to my own reflection. if only I could hold yours just as close in my hands. we choose costumes for birthdays in different states. I bet you look amazing. please take a photo for me.

white noise and a wedding

and I am the boy on the train fixing his hair in the mirror. I stand safe and secure, warm in my coat of white noise, eyes open only when I want to see. I wear my mood on my ring finger, and I am married to the feelings I conceal on command. my alarm is the same every morning: sirens screeching ballads from the bedside of old ghosts I used to know. clawing my hands through the stream of my subconscious into ink through hair under water in the morning showers. I fuel the engine over headlines, a hopeless afterthought of an attempt to jumpstart that part of my heart. the orange man throws his words and bombs around. we watch when we want to between the boulder and the mirror.

I think about the child that didn’t know. he still worried before the sky first fell through the ceiling of the bus. how many times would he use the toilet before bed? remember when he’d calm the anger of the fates using the magic number on the light switch. the fear takes different shapes now, subsisting even still in big boy clothes. he’d like to know a little better, being older and a little longer now. between flashing green lights and another spring’s arrival nothing much has changed. any morning can still spring the first day of the end of the world.

train dreams

you call to tell me you're waiting at the front door. I've been cooking and cleaning and trying not to think too much. on the porch you greet me with a haircut, the difference I can't quite appreciate as much as the hug in the dark. the candles in the kitchen fill the gaps. it's nice to see you smile again.

in my room we play your music and laugh into the way we were again. I release my relief into your embrace. the rhythm returns and maybe we both remember why we started to begin with. I didn't think I'd see you again. you say you didn't want to leave things vacant. I missed you and you missed me too. and so we are where we are, willing each other a little closer with questions and answers and the warmth that comes with holding onto something. our towels hang side by side on the rail above the blinds.

we both have train dreams, like the title of the movie that last made a stranger cry. on his way out of the house he told me I had to watch the film, that it felt like watching poetry. I dream of losing you on trains / in transit, finding you on the platform making the conductors laugh. they are sad to see you go when we board the right train to wherever we are going. track works shoot us all over the city. in the afternoon sun we're nearly caught coming undone through the windows. at the end of the line I spy post with our names through the door before waking up. you dream of the long journey home on a train that never seems to end.

in the morning you stretch on the floor, telling me about your dream and plans for your adventure. before greeting the day you sing me a song about sending your heart to the moon. you kneel with my guitar and I am frozen on my pillow. hope lines the day with the sound of your voice. I look at you in the dark / when we glow / on the floor with your song and my guitar. I think that when you leave I will write something beautiful about this. 

primavera

winter's ending spawns another spring and we wake to face September again. blossoms start to bleed a little earlier here in anticipation. I pass them on the ride to school wishing they would slow down / be a little more patient. they are beautiful but fleeting and I want them to last. back home our weeping tree stirs to life for less than a week, blossoming a soft pink that rains onto the unkempt flowerbed at its feet. my parents know I think of it and send a photo every year. I wish that time would fertilise a little slower.

dining outside at the laksa house on Lygon. the breeze is soft and mild. waiting for my friend's return from the bathroom I listen to a stranger lecturing a captive first date audience on climate change. I learn that winter will soon be a thing of the past. collectively we can't keep up with the planet or our own destruction. 'we'll be okay ... but winter is gone.' in my bowl I carve my spoon through the dregs of the soup.

learning how to swim apart

so we beat on

carved in fire

in water

in anything but stone

pixelated feelings blurred or clear as your voice in the dark

fluorescent or a little less wild 

however you like

the dog from the song waiting with the bird

under the moon

wanting only to be wanted

sitting in your car

you read the new commandments from the mountain in a voice that isn't yours

I say amen

biting my tongue on a prayer willing you home

using other words

a little different from the start

closing windows

as you wish

dimming colours as needed

being what I am

for now:

translucent shell of dreams

head and heart

learning how to swim apart.

clay or chemical reactions

I wait for the right words. they'll come only in time to commiserate the end of days. in the meantime you are busy, working with your fish and doing other things. it's my turn but I don't know what to do. I waste time wondering what you might be thinking. though you're not waiting for the right words to find me too I don't want to be a stranger.

you coloured your hair for the first time in years. I remind myself at every pit that grows in my chest at the sight of your natural colour on a stranger. the orange is soft and gentle. you want it to be darker but you've also said you're not feeling keen on anything right now. I told you it looks beautiful. you probably squeezed my hand or shrugged me off into a smile.

rereading the pages I breathe into the fact that I meant everything I said. I told you this once. we had been glowing and lost in each other in your room. the light was soft and you were warm and all around me. we smiled into each other's eyes, willing the glow to keep us safe a little longer. I could have drowned there happily, your eyes opening windows and blinds, letting light into rooms I'd left locked forever. you are beautiful and in your eyes I don't need to wonder what you think. I thank you and tell you I've meant everything I said. you thank me and say the same in return. I believe you without reason to believe anything else.

thinking in ink I try to map what might be going on, not wanting to push you any closer to the sink to wash your hands and leave. I wonder how alone I am in second-guessing. you told me you wanted to check that nothing had changed. the essence of the question and the way it sounds in your mouth grates against the way we've been since the beginning. I think about the way we glow and laugh and sing, the way we've danced and held and grown to know each other. this has changed. we were strangers not too long ago. do you know too many of my colours now? I remember everything is fluid and we are little more than clay or chemical reactions I don't understand.

I've kept the mirror in my room since your last visit. we lay it up against the bed to dress and paint our faces for the aliens. I took a photo of you colouring yours. it hangs in a library of others I want you to see. evidence of memories that shouldn't exist in a world that moves so quick, too quick to care for kissing in the pantry or glowing through the playground in the dark. I contemplate leaving us where we are, preserving the gold in the vault. do I let you run like water? is it better to speak or keep you safe in memory? what do you want me to do?