let's rule a kingdom, let's mark the stars. let's stay together, never apart.

you're fingerpainting hearts across my arm as my thumb runs over your gorgeous lips; every fiber feels the warmth of your breath as you say you love me, my bones rattle from the echo of your gaze; there's nothing compared to your presence, in a universe full of divinity.

//

souls molded from stardust, your name's the only word i crave to know; we're sitting on gold thrones with half our hearts drunk on love and the other half bleeding confessions that the world already knows; humanity bows to the higher power, but what's greater than my desire, to taste your name and kiss you, all within the same hour?

//

we're splattered in sunset colors, rulers of the sky to a world that's waiting to follow; eternity written through the stars in your name, my soul's interlaced through your unyielding gaze; our footsteps trail to our sacred place, let's leave our empire waiting, just for the day.

please,

just call my name.

Honey spills over parted lips and navy-blue waves crash against dark sand, sending a spray of sea salt like glass beads that shudder the air before condensing at the corners of your closed eyelids.

The sea is mourning tonight and our cupped hands do little to protect the golden flame of the candle between us. It shudders in a wind we cannot feel as the gulls hang motionless far above, as if by threads.

We know this place is not meant for us, not meant for fragile vessels of blood and bone, but as the sky comes crashing down we can only lay back, honey-lips open in something between a sob and a scream though no sound escapes them, hands intertwined as our eyes glaze over.

You looked at me like I was an ethereal being.

You worshiped my body with shaking hands,

As though my body was the holy land,

And you were in the presence of a god.

You whispered sinful confessions onto my lips,

My hips were the altar.

You got wine drunk between my legs,

The sweet nectar dripping from your lips.

You swallowed my moans and breathless pants,

As though they were a prayer you were dying to recite.

The moon bathed us in her soft glow,

And as I opened my eyes after coming down from cloud nine,

I realized as I watch you catch your breath,

It was you who was a god in human form,

And you transformed my body into the holy land

In which you built your home.

In that moment,

Time was forever frozen.

A man and his wife were setting up for a long day volunteering at the college. They had a baby, a troubled toddler, and a pram with much accoutrement that goes with parenting.

A tether appeared to have been fastened on the base of a huge tree. The process of mounting the apparatus must not have been complete, for now the father stood back a short ways and shot a hefty, black pistol into the tree trunk near the ground. It made a large, perfectly round hole. Rather than xylem and phloem being just beneath, it was hollow. He'd knocked the outer bark off, merely chipping the surface off of a cavity then.

I went on, but learnt right away that a tragedy had ensued moments after this, resulting in the accidental death.

I was horrified and hastened to class. A psych class it was and had started by the time I entered. I took in the scene immediately. Our prof was absent again, and I heard her voice as she called out names and grades of our recent exam. She got to the last alphabetically, and now repeated my name, questioningly. She’d obviously skipped my name when it went by before. “I’m here now,” I said. “I need to let you know that there’s been a death.”

She switched to where I could hear but others could not and said she knew all about this. She signed off for the day. We would hold class without her.

I confided in a woman who sat beside me, Tammi, about the disaster. She was all ears, and we both supposed the charity event would have to be cancelled since this angelic couple were the primary tablers, so who else could step in to table the all-day event? I told her the child did not know what had happened, as it was apparent there was no baby on the end of the tether and he must’ve assumed the worst of his da.

A large, clownish man said, “Well, they should’ve let him walk over. They live just across the street, don’t they?” Nobody said a word for a long, awkward mo.

Then the one by me barked at him, “It’s Eastland Park!”

A challenged young man had begun an emotional rave that was almost incoherent. “Why did they make us say it … nobody understands … you see now, it doesn’t help …” He was crying hysterically and there were so many body fluids escaping on his face, tears and spit, to name a couple. He could not get a grip, as others of us tried soothing him. “But you don’t know. That’s true … that no one understands. ...” he ranted.

“Go ahead, say it. Say your piece." Tammi encouraged. "You know you must.”

“Ahh, it doesn’t do any good! HE’D said it, and this happened anyway! Oh, all right … I have a challenge, I try to overcome, I …” He rambled off the litany required of him as he’d done every day of class, only he rolled it out faster than we’d ever observed it.

Walking back over later to see if I might be needed to volunteer, I saw across the boulevard the face of the self-effacing man who’d led a rather normal existence just that morning. His garage door was shutting slowly, his was face the picture of remorse, AND he was crying. My head was swimming. Had he killed one of the children by mistake? Hadn’t he himself been the one shot? Maybe his ghost was remorseful at his having been negligent with the firearm leading to his own unintentional demise. That was it, I decided. Either way, there were no good options to neatly pack this up.