ragged-edges on my breath, on my body

 
The living room
had that cozy fall glow
as the day waned
and my body peaked
under your curiosity

The satin robe
I’d hidden in
pooled at my feet
like melted ice cream
as your knuckles
traced my collar bone
before you took me gently
to the floor

And made a crime-scene
outline around my body
with your exhale

My hair fanned on the carpet
skin dimpled with chills
as your lips
investigated
each white line
on my long body

My eyes squinched shut
fist balled
body tight as you
bent my knee,
calf in your hand,
and raised my heel to your mouth
as you found
the spider-thin gnarling
around my heels
from going harder when it hurt

from pushing more when it bleeds

And you told me
you loved me
for my endurance.

You found the strange
little whiplashes on each shin
from moments when the
path wasn’t what I expected,
so I ran through gnarled bushes
that charged a skin tax

And left their bill
etched on my legs

Your thumb touched the
rough stitching in the
top of my shin
and I bit my lip
hard enough to not cry

secretly ashamed of the way
I’m fucking perfect
fucking perfect
from 10 feet away

but a mass of secret scars
(and freckles)
when you’re close enough
to taste me
taste me

You do,
my heart,
you taste it all
with such soft patience
that my trembling mind almost stills
as you pay homage
to the little paper cuts
on my tummy from
an organ that wanted out

and the fake freckle on my belly button
from that decade of belly rings,
my secret tattoo,
the cat scratch,
an old burn mark from the oven,
the freckles on my chest
from a youth without sunblock

and you settle yourself
between my legs,
as if the sex were an afterthought

you pushed up
and told me
to
open
my
eyes
 
I did
 
I did.
 
I stopped shivering,
stopped hiding
behind my eyelids
and you drank
my inner scars
through your pupils
with as much attention
to their texture
as the lines you
kissed on my body

You called me strong
You called me beautiful
You called me yours.

I sighed as truth moved
in shallow strokes
stripping my breath
from my naked bones

and I felt my
beautifully flawed skin
move against yours;

felt my
flawlessly gnarled
heart tremble
at the truth
of you