LUV POWEM

Poem inspired by the song "Anyone Else But You," on Juno soundtrack.

You kiss me on my apple in the brain of night
my girlhood falls to pieces I'm a shiny fit of rage

you're all legs and bony parts I'm a softer plot of land
together we're a puzzle the neighbors stop and sigh

it's not the way we kiss that gets the small dogs yapping
I make you laugh in bed against the middle of the night

sometimes I remember how my mother looked in death
it's in your face at dinner when you take your final bite

once I thought I'd never have a lover in my bed again but
like the spring you cycled round and found me

by a tent at the ocean I was crying from the cold
you gave me special socks and read from Rimbaud

you took me naked down the unconcerned river and now
we live among the bookshelves and our seashell lamps

you hum yourself to sleep with a pair of Frenchy songs
I wake up to the tune of Paris growing in my belly

I watch your morning lips just moving skin to skin
we're not so bad together even though you have those scars

they come to visit each December I have mine in May
three daisies in a vase inside the window sill we make

a home OK. The cat's in bed I'm sneezing you wrap your arms
around me grab my breasts it's cold the floor against my feet

the sun is nowhere to be seen I turn to you a daisy in my teeth
now there's just a crumpled pair of shadows at the sink.