I've Got Your Back

I want to have some of what you need me for
linking arms a chain of flesh in the distance
I won't make mistakes and I'll behave.
I want the wedge itself to dissolve between us
lifting and pulling turning one into the other.
There is only so long you can spoon
a 120 LBS bag of cotton. Eating one blackberry
at a time until my fingers are stained
as I thumb through pictures of you.
Smudged faces, glass on the floor, a water bug
skitters between us and we scream because
those things are just plain scary. Surprises
are scary too but not when they are cupped
in your hands a little chocolate granola
sneaky things repeated a toothbrush in the bathroom
signifies nothing so much as clean teeth and fresh breath.
There are wars raging people are pissed-off everywhere
some of the children have started bonfires
made of dead roses and cherry blossoms.
Pink smoke fills the air. A circus of skin and sparks
beyond the headlines the details are building
while the possibility of two people simply sitting
in a room together not at war is a miracle. Now
think of that when they scream in your face
walk into the river and don't look back
or wave even-I'll be right behind you.