(Revised)

You spin shadows
into curls
along the vertebrae
of my back.

The thin, blue flesh
of a lover’s hand
quivers
beneath the tangle
of a furious knot.

We lie
under summer stars,
rolling into the fists
of a drugged storm,
our bodies tuned
to the black pulse
of a silhouette.
A heart’s flicker
claws at the boughs
of time,
a settlement of forces
pressed against bone.

It gleams—
a clear fire
in the oval of an eye.
And we watch death
orbit in
mismatched circles,
behind locked doors,
beside the scales,
the steel-lipped safe
of our worship,
its mouth clamped shut
on every secret.

And at last,
our bodies sink,
soldered together
against the cold jaw
of the floor.