galaxy whale

i wanted to be the bone in your soup.
skirts ruffles in between clouds.
oh how my heart came as gummy worms 
to the bowl of your hands. teeth raining 
in sunshower. the whale was everything 
we wanted in a god. he swept the driveway 
free of rusted nails. poured jello 
into every open mold. rosaries of strawberries.
the candy necklace i ate off your skin.
i didn't know how to worship this kind
of divinity. larger than one eye could hold.
spilling over the lip of the flat-earth.
my knees like fish bowls. golden golden golden.
he demanded songs. holding my father's tape recorder
& playing hallelujah like i knew
what an angel was. the telescope
that broke trying to stare down the galaxy.
he gave lungs to sleep inside of. clothesline
with wings pinned up, drying. a kickball game
on the back of a turtle. whiskers against skin.
i said, glory be to the ladel & what it gives.
drinking water from a tree's slit throat.
you have to take what you can get.
loving you was like worshipping opal. 
was that my face i saw in your mouth?
a wicker basket of fingers. i was trying
to pick just one. then, god breeching
& splashing the whole town. drenched in stars
i walked across corn fields until
my legs were fins. silos of grain for winter.
the animals would not go hungry.