we go to sleep with your head (keppie) here
in a hollow that perfectly fits
the curve of your cheek
i did not speak of vacant places
i did not know their name or face
until your fear and fluids filled them
i did not feel the chill numbing my hands
until your fevers warmed them
i know better now who i am
i know better now who i am not
we question constructs of rooms
walls left standing are smooth
hand spackled & freshly painted
mirrors mounted between tile seams
reflect cornflower blue & silk sand pink
contrast & match the living rooms
woodstain & fleshtone tincture
we have remodeled to home
together we tear down old shrines
replace them with our own cultivations
the private intimate crops we nurture
overgrow the bare neglected patches
create lush green from gold
perennial garden from lawn
fish pond from rain & stone
red leaf lettuce, peppers, roses
& other nearly sacrificial offerings
we fish a river beyond the bridge
too close & too far to be just familiar
life companions on roads less traveled
we wed in temporal encampment
aglow in fire stoked from ash to flame
we couple close like matched spoons
this somewhere searching finds
more to find than time within us
& nothing but time to know
every nuance of the more deep of you
here lie here with love your keppie here
with all the world looking in or away
with just you looking at
before & after me
somewhere
anywhere you are
with you is home