they made love in the ocean
at night in the steam heat with people studding the coastline like jewels
they touched for fast warm seconds
short and sweet and salty
paradoxical
they held each other in midsummer when i was pressing stems between pages and biting my tongue
she had all my words and kept them sealed in glass jars
unaware of my heart excavated from my chest and beating fleshy red in the palm of her hand
she showed him love with her mouth and a cup beside the bed
sometimes it only takes weeks before a drop of water curates a flood and a smile crumbles like pompeiian walls and innocence turns metal to brown scabby rust
i wish she didn't tell me she regretted it
and that she told me that one story she'd said made her too sad
i wish all these gaps in my bones were filled with lovelight
i wish he was gone