Twenty-One

I search for the words of others

I want etched into my skin

I need to feel the needles

To miss you with more pain

Pain from the outside

Do you ever google yourself?

What about your first boyfriend?

First girlfriend?

First rapist?

Yeah, me too.

The first time I found him he’d found Jesus. And a wife. Kids, too.

Writing Us

I curl into your neck. Burying myself in you.

We breathe. We twirl red and white stripes on a barbershop pole, legs and arms locking into place.

Your breathing paces mine. Cars roll to the four-way stop, accelerating away. Rhythm to our night.