The Black Napkin Volume 1 Issue 4 | Page 50

44

Two poems by Gray Torres

My lover

My lover is my escape

There are maps

written in the bronchi

of their lungs,

steps traced

from the muscle

Of the willing

Their hair a ladder

I climb

Stiff under my weight

eyes glazed,

body straight

A pillar

until they crack

or shift

Then we

Trade places

My body solid

as they look

for flowers and rivers

shoulders tremble

a heavy sigh creeps

up my back

And I collapse

under dreams of

Rings and flowers

we lift each other

by green and red

stained clothes.

To pull apart

Clean and dress

Our own wounds

Eyes burning

As we limp away

To separate paths