gulliver 

i want to build you 
a tiny house--

one small enough 
to fit in the top
drawer of your desk--

i crouch on my speckled carpet:
desk lamp sun--

nanoscale hammers & nails

my fingers are too
big for this--

i feel gigantic 

& i think about my 
brother who read gulliver's travels 

he was most afraid 
of the land of giants 
as opposed to the 
land of small people--

i feel like a small person 
& a giant at the same time--

6 inches tall
with my head breaking
through the shingles of the roof--

glass in my hair--
tooth pick femurs--

you wished
you had started planning
your tiny house earlier--

you wanted to
build one on your own 

but you didn't say where--

i pictured it
like one of those 
HGTV shows 

a wild backyard--
grass ocean-rippling--
mountains framing the 
skyline with jagged 
god-teeth--

do you want to build
yourself smaller?

do you want to
crouch on your
hands & knees enough
times so that you 
stand 6 inches tall?

i'm making the doorway now--

i measure my open
mouth as a template--

i want to be a house
some days--

small & with one back 
window above the kitchen sink--

i want a mantle 
to take off memories on

photographs from
underneath my tongue--

prayer cards from funerals--

i'll leave 
the bed room only
big enough to hold me--

walls of my wingspan--

loneliness is
big & small--

tell me-- did gulliver 
envy them?

with their rare bodies?

& i wanted to know
if you intended on 
keeping company--

i can fit in 
the smallest of closets--

i can be the miniature 
on your end table--

or you can keep me on
the top shelf of your
medicine cabinet--

i mean the one inside
the tiny house--

right now you live 
too far away--

more than a wing span--

when you open your desk
& find me i will
fit in the palm of
your hand--

pick me up gently--

this is an invitation
to be smaller--

this is me with the
leftover bolts & screws--

they'll never find people here--

microscopic us--

our heads of pins--

our tomatoes plants on
the porch the size of aphids 

when you kiss me 
it will be so quiet that
only we can hear--