once we laid down in the grass

let ants crawl across wrists
& voles gathered under our spines
to discuss their desires. 
you were vibrant 
in your budding.
little mouths spread across your face.
i could have kissed you anywhere.
you could have rolled me into a knot
using only your tongue & teeth. 
all the centipedes circled 
& made coins of us. gliding birds
traded branch for branch
& beak for beak. we counted
clouds & listened to one pass
another. faint sound
of cloth on cloth. i forget
if you wanted to be an astronaut 
or a pie maker & if i wanted
to run across water or sink
deep underneath. the summer 
was all we had. a tunnel 
carved & craved. the morning 
like a dripping planet ready
to be named. we were both 
hard amber candies. 
rock candy knuckles.
one last loose tooth to plant
in the grass & hope for a teeth tree.
the line between friend & lover
is strewn with bed rooms
& christmas lights & popsicles.
nothing could tell me otherwise.
i would get up before you
or you before me & then 
everything would be melancholy
& flat-footed again. let me braid 
your hair. let me snap the neck
of a dandelion for you. 
leave the yellow skull 
blinking upward. a placeholder
for where our bodies posed 
as discarded feathers. 
i will be a boy in the future
if that means anything at all.
a bracelet of beetles 
& just one worm wriggling
across your collar bone. 
sky greying & readying
to drench us in fresh oil.
we get up before thunder. 
voles disperse. bug search for
our warmth. a kiss moth-flies 
between us. me to you
or you to me? 
we don't talk about it
at all. rain comes.