skinny dipping

there are not enough ghosts to go around.
i see you pulling elephants from your mouth.
the lake is full of red jello but we swim anyway.
i could go on & on about every way 
you stripped me down to me necklaces.
instead i will just show you the callouses
on my feet & the scar in the shape of a rabbit.
we drive slow at night. the deer are deering.
standing in flocks of three & waiting
to ascend into heaven for the winter.
it was january & the pool water unfroze.
i was fourteen or fifteen. i said, "watch me!"
there was no one watching but an owl 
with a mouse in his mouth. haven't you 
ever taken a moment to relish your prey?
i have not. i am an audio-tarian meaning
i only eat sound. the water hit me 
like piano mondays. my heart a little pomegranate.
get your thumbs in there. get your teeth
pulling husk from hail mary. i do not 
know how i got out alive. i shivered
for days after. sometimes i still shiver
from the cold of that plunge. all the scales 
& talons i shed. limbs floated in the water
around me. bare as my bones would let me.
i had never wanted so badly to be kissed.
to have the warmth of someone else's blood.
never mistake a fire for company. 
unzip your skin in august when all the cicadas
are on television & boys fall from the trees
all day in the form of soup peaches 
& mango. don't get me wrong,
i loved to hear my bones ring. i loved to see
all my future teeth buzzing like beetles.
i loved to be, for a moment, undone.