bat boxes

i tell you i want to stay the night
& you permit me. fasten a home from
paperclips & an old shoe box.
i use our evening to make a dragon
of your television. have you not noticed
there are arms hidden in every animal?
whale's phantom hand. snake's soldier stance. 
bat's meager palms. i ate gnats from around
your bananas waiting for you to wake. humans are
prone to wasting the best parts of darkness. 
sleeping bags hung from the ceiling
on meat hooks. were you not ravenous?
scraping jewels from the belly of the beast.
you think this is symbiosis. really, 
i am using you for your lamps & 
your canned beans. a bunker emerges 
in the periphery. space enough just for us.
i will tell you stories about gliding
from tree to tree in search 
of a syllable. i will tell you about 
all the lovers who turned into rabbits.
our shadows spend midnight standing up straight.
i wave to mine before he runs away, crumpled
like an old castle. i'm going to 
teach you your upside down. your inverted heart. 
take your shoes off. i'll float them
down river. finger to lips. we have to be
quiet. we have to not wake up the sun.
i used to dance endlessly until my limbs
turned to twigs. i'm going to stay 
as long as you'll have me. now, look,
above. the sky is full of ripe plums.