we live on front porches

The door swings open and shut
and in one embrace
we say both hello and goodbye
lost in the crumbling bones of the remorse of last year
it seems like we're always passing through this way
brief, intangible moments
wrapped in hurried whispers of greeting and farewell
the words taste best with a hint of sugar on your tongue.

We were always trying to catch up with honey on my lips
sometimes having momentary meetings on front porch swings
but never quite making it past the welcome mat
as we breathe the waves of a pleasant lull,
in our speech and tidal movements
can it really be love
when we never get past the meeting point?

I kick myself in the shoulder
for failing to recognize the electricity in my boulder solid skull
and we rest arm in arm and head on the shoulder like a pillow
we kissed to practice our exchanges
making up salutations from the top of our hair
it’s been a long time gone by,
with all the coming and goings
you're the edge of my ride when I can't focus
on the afterglow of my cigarette relief.

Killer bees couldn’t make the buzz greater
and Hallelujah is an emblem on your sweater,
when you come racing down that path from the front gate
where my pulmonary artery bursts with the suspense
and a camera snapped segments of my broken neck,
craning ‘round the door lintel when I couldn’t quite make you out.
while we made out like bandits in the motor-hewn night air
you were sewn in my nightmares as a parachute cord.

I remember when you couldn’t fight gravity,
I remember when you couldn’t wait to see me,
I remember when you couldn’t find your feet,
I remember the place where we first met,
here on this very front porch we can never seem to move past,
I will see you again by the end of last year.