opinionated fiction and iridescent angel wings

1. you told me the veins in my forearms (swollen as they were) were like highways and I watched you watching me while your breath discovered Canada

2. those were the days when we’d
drop acid like hints
and play connect-the-dots with our freckles,
although we usually lost focus and
instead decided
to find interesting things to do while stargazing at your underwater ceiling.

3. it was always an ‘almost’ with you.

4. I remember the day we drove around aimlessly
looking for a good place for you to
photograph me
and when we found the caves my breasts and stomach were pale enough
to confuse you into thinking
i was a corpse

but a much better kisser.

5. and here's to another night spent
reciting the poetry in each other's lips
and rain for days

6. you liked to walk around with me not touching
because when the guys and girls tried anything or
looked too long
you could pull me in for a deep kiss
and let your hands wrap around me (they're so long
they can wrap around and hold my ribs)
and you always got that grin

7. but maybe you and i are too prideful because of the way we hide in pretentious tires and act like we don't realize people are only using us as a way to get places, and
we pretend it's not the world that feels so heavy, just our own vanity and guilt.

8. or when our pinkies interlocked and
we let our voices become as interchangeable as the days
because that was true love
and that's what we were all about

9. i told you how
when i was a little girl
my mother told me i could become a boy if i kissed my elbow
and i spent the next twelve years trying, only to
meet you
and decide we were the same soul, so in a way
i was a perfect boy with concave alphabetical anatomy and a
dazzling puzzle-piece abdomen

10. her smile was enamel-breaking
when you walked by her,
picking me up easily and setting me on your shoulders
so that we looked like one beautiful herm
but i looked back and i saw her
staring bulletholes

11. perfect storm-blue eyes never could manage to see the way they all lapped at you.

and when i asked you about it later you were all vegas and you told me you never noticed because most of them wanted me too.

12. it was always the small things that had me:
the way your lips curled over your teeth
(and everything else)
the stubble of your chin when you walked downstairs each morning
the way your veins got swollen when i
put my hand on your knee

or even just the way your chest
looked in the lamplight as you breathed in my tease

13. but she was the girl
with tasty coconut lipgloss and
big espresso eyes
it made sense you two would be into each other--

you were both out of rehab and
pale as cocaine
tall like models
beautiful

15. you said you'd rip up her number that day but you waited until later, looking that extra second, and i could tell your mouth was
watering at the thought of kissing lace off her arm.