the earth is flat 

this poems is
for the person 
i was talking to
last night & how 
i wanted to stay
5 minutes longer
but my body has 
the tendency to dissolve--
& there i was diffusing
into the room 
where everyone's voices
were becoming flesh
of their own-- jostling
against me--
a voice is such a 
warm thing-- 
i saw the room
in a wide shot-- there
the black-haired boy
sitting
on the coffee table
sips a can of fresca 
& contemplates
how when he gets home
he's going to eat 
a peanut butter sandwich
& read 
William Carlos Williams 
this is just to say...
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet & so cold  
Forgive me
for leaving-- forgive
me for zooming
back farther-- for
watching myself
watch you watching 
another conversation
refract off the 
walls-- there i
caught your smirk
in my hands &
tucked it in my pocket
for later-- do you
know how badly i 
want to know you?
& the i sat &
as i dissipated
i wondered again
about if 
maybe the earth
would go flat while
we weren't paying
attention &
then on the way
home i might just
fall off--
i see the horizon
a roll of christmas
wrapping paper--
left out beneath
the tree for
my brother & i to 
find-- printed with
snowflakes & penguins--
glittering slightly--
we're not disapointed 
when we tear apart the
wall paper
to find the edge waiting
for us there--
all along we
have been living
so close to the modest
verge of everything-- 
light itself tripping
& plummeting 
off-- trees tossing
handfuls of 
brown leaves
in the hopes of
appeasing it--
there is no calming
the fringes
of this night
where the world
was a quilted square
& my mother sat criss-
cross on the red sofa
knitting me
back into place--
a home the weighty 
touches of your
voices pull fingers
through my hair--
my heart shivers--
somehow i let
it become december
& alone in my room 
i open my window
to remember again
the flat flat wrapping
paper earth--
i mark the horizon
in red sharpie 
& remind myself to
never walk that far alone
zoom
out-- the black-haired
boy
crawls into bed--
takes your smirk
out of his pocket &
it glows softly--
he smiles &
puts it away--
wraps covers around his
head-- somehow
his bed teeters 
on the ledge--
the earth--
a smaller & smaller
square to
cascade off--
waterfalls on all
sides-- he mistakes
the hush of the
water for 
cars driving
by-- their headlights
equivalent to 
angels--
i should have stayed
5 minutes longer
but there
i was-- 
descending-- your
mouth 
a moth-wing
light
still in 
smirking
my pocket