i watch the mirrors to reveal
whisperings and echoes
known (though for a moment)

reading connections missed
as body language between strangers

and i weaved my tapestries daily
for leaving you i die
until you look upon me again

i am Pandora

(she) hiding and locking her secrets among objects and actions
eager to understand (i grasped them)

my and ours (Your) hands reaching in
cause destruction and pain (to us alone)

(she) will never know the horrors released
and that Hope was left inside

outside the mother punishes the child who lies
while frost and wind bring no comfort to your truth

(You who guide me, show me the way)
i hear the bells clang inside my body

and yet as i scream (yes!) to the sky
the music ends with dissonance

you (to me) are grass and leaves and trees
your hands are the feeling of wind upon my skin
and your words the weather

-but, oh, let my love be not as the poets
whose words whisper softly as mine yet with a serpent tongue
for you are only nature (that dies and changes)
and i am no pantheist

instead let my love be for the sake of Love
that first taught what and how the word meant

for you and i are roots that must be watered
before we share the drink

i am an hourglass
blood and water
instead of sand

when i am empty
You turn me

in the kitchen watching her make her tea
(she empties me

i am inanimate)
with purpose

You are the dynamite
and i am to be the flame
(burn snap flicker burst)

they and i purse our lips
(stamping shuttering screaming)
and blow

***

i am a rock
and i hear the door slam in threes

stripping the shirt from my chest
pounding my heart with fists bloodied

***

Your hands (held) feet (walked)
dripping with black

i am made clean

when i eat sugar
little red bumps appear on my tongue

i used to eat dried pineapple and consider you and me, him and me
(and also me and You)

i remember telling you i Loved you
but that is not what i meant, not what i meant at all

alone in Tokyo
even the chopsticks
in pairs