perspective

you said i’m so much smarter than you but i don’t know how to change a tire or how to stitch a ripped seam or how to hold eye contact. all i know is flapping jaws & pawing at you til desire sneaks in under your waistband. i’m just a tourist distraction. & you are the old victorian with the wrap around porch with a garden & real shutters that actually close. cleaned out gutters, fresh paint, a treehouse in the maple out back, an homage to my childhood home. you are sturdy, timeless, beautiful, desired. i am shiny & new & easily broken with a shit return policy. i’d hang curtains in your window but they’d come out crooked because i always get too frustrated with the level & end up drilling the screws in all wonky. you could calm river rapids, make a gravestone giggle, make vinegar blush. you see something in me that floats on the surface like a dead salmon rotting in the atlantic. you skip stones that ripple then sink to a sound settling. & maybe that’s just it, that you’re always settling because you refuse to embrace or even recognize the magic in your fingertips. that is not a euphemism. well okay it can be a euphemism because that’s true too but i swear that’s not what i meant. you settle with me, with her, with the old her. selling yourself short & sewing yourself shut & do you ever stare at your reflection for longer than a beat? breathe into your green eyes & sigh & let yourself believe all the things you post on your story? i don’t know what you want. but you taste like skinny dipping & moonlight & blue cypress. press to me. or forget about me entirely. you are more than a creation. show me your moon. show me how you rise. stable like the earth but i drown in the depths of your waters. i’m trying not to rock the boat baby. sorry, i’m not trying to prematurely term of endearment all over you, was just trying to make one of those stupid little references i pointlessly shove into my stupid little poems that you are somehow convinced give me some sort of value as if i have anything meaningful to say. you see with gentleness, patience, forgiveness. touch with confidence, assuredness, affection. i wish i could keep your attention just long enough to wipe the soot off your mirror so you can see with everyone else’s view. i guess what i’m trying to say is that i hear what you don’t say & i see the glints in your eye. when they flicker. when they fade. when they erupt. you’re the ocean, it’s why sea salt appears every time i try to write to you, about you. quench my thirst then wash away my footprints. stop denying the depth of your power, your intrigue, your vastness. let it crash, your waves will always come back.