tossing stones in the perkiomen creek 

a pile of grey stones where my legs were,
knees, smooth & disk-like
with the gravel of my thighs

i disintegrate myself carefully,
limb by limb 

to be tossed,

the perkiomen creek makes a hungry mouth

tongue snake-flicking with
cool june water

your mouth, your teeth like 
store fonts or ivory 
piano keys 

we killed the elephants, me & you

& we found their remnants as
these rocks by shoulders of the water

shrug me into a parable about
falling into love

love, like the side of the cliff
you told me about, the one where
you're exposed & all the trees
laugh at you for being so 

vulnerable & human

each stone is a story i didn't
tell you

we talk about the bodies we've
been snowed in with 

& the trees start to shed their
ice crystals

the ones they've been holding
in for a summer-
day like us

i love it when you talk about
people the last person you loved

forgive me, but i find
myself loving them through you

i conjure their laugh & the curve
of their nose & their legs 
dangling off the side of the bed

morning sun striping skin

i want to thank them for being part 
of this yearning 

it all aches in me

the snap of stone on stone

the spark of water 

am i just a vessel then?

my chest becoming more pebbles to 
throw, take a handful for me 

i crave the slow-motion sinking

the feel of grit under finger nails

the birds skim the surface
to pluck gnats 

they pick us up by our shirt
collars & dunk us under

deeper than we thought

air bubbles turning into 
fragments of speech

i kiss you like the boulders 
as they smack into each other
down the side of the cliff

blood-vessels becoming
firework 

becoming broken 

this is me throwing me
throwing you

tell me their name again

i'll tell you mine 

& we'll watch the words elephant amble

shaking the night

you've left me here

removing the stones from
my bed & dropping
them onto the bedroom floor