For Vulnerability
An abstract
nakedness won’t do.
One needs to go fully
nude: only translucent
water for clothes,
Korean-public-bath nude.
That day, we got
intimate; I mean even
though we were
recently acquainted
(and later we’d become
close enough
to hurt each other)
our thoughts touched.
She asked me why
I was getting married.
I answered, half
laughing, that he knew
too many of my secrets.
It's never too late to call it off,
she said and placed
her hand on my arm, so
slowly the droplets
slipping back into
the water barely made
an echo. I considered
how this could be genuine
concern, so I replied
seriously: It's okay,
I’m confident
I know enough
to destroy him too.
A Memory
I tried
retracing
the bread-
flakes
we left
after we
so messily
shared that
last croissant,
but it was late.
I found red-
chested
swallows
devouring
all evidence
of whatever
loves
we tried.
No.
I’m sorry.
Let me try
this again.
The truth
is I found
the morsels,
but I didn’t
recognize them.
They had turned
into the birds,
then their throats
had joined
a flight of blinding
vermilion
twilights.