before the day before him
after the after behind him
his fingers freely flex
strings are skin
tuners are lips
frets are the pressure points he memorized
curved lovely round
a body is a body
he can play theirs together sweet
no pick
bare
the progression of a tune that began as a hum
while he watched bread rise
kneaded needed knotted into a twist the lull the fostering
of chords
it's the slap of his palm below the bridge
circulation of a smile
vermilion brilliant persimmon radiant tea rose
before his before and after his after
again and again until the next until
in an endless loop he commits he swears he
he proposes
if the work herei
i think you pretend to know a lot of things
about a lot of things you don't know about
and i suppose it's nice
nice
that you make the effort to pretend
but i don't know
if i can do this
for an extended
period of time
explaining things
laying the groundwork
when i laid down my own foundation
through blood and tampons and nail polish
and razors and leg hairs and eyebrow wax
and my father at the table always being
served first
and the boys online asking me for
nudes
i clawed through that
for this
no one held my hand
or told me these things
i don't have the energy to do that for you
so you can pretend to know a lot about
things you think