Sahara Sweet

These words are elusive,
Water in a desert
Where my lips are chapped
My tongue parched.
I have chased mirages of them,
Though never brave enough to trust
The illusion to quench

But god do I keep coming back for more
Because the taste of new love is sweeter
Than the scorn of its defeat.

& I have nibbled the syllables in the face of back-alley boys
Keen on tearing heart from chest,
Taste off my tongue,
Treasure bound and buried under the sea of my exes.

But god do I keep hungering for it
Because escape like free floating butterflies finding their way home from my insides
Is exactly the difference between beaten down boundlessness
& the vision of you that brings the desert rain,
& to me
My bliss.