I remember you riding up • a streak of red so intense • I felt my veins stretching to get back the blood they swore they’d lost • I was awed so far out of my skin by your presence my teeth started rattling • these days I have to keep my jaw clenched • tighter than my grandpa’s handshake to keep them from running after you • It doesn’t always work • I have nightmares of the day they shatter under the pressure • We sat down and made music for the first time • our souls interlocking • knowing what to do with each other before we did • In the months that followed • You dug your hands in so deep • grabed me by the bones • rattled my cage • you learned every crease and joint of my soul • read thier vibrations • lit them afire • inhaled the smoke so deep you exhaled ribbons of gold • prying songs out of me like pearls • The whole time our souls dancing • telling each other stories of broken mothers and star crossed fathers • feeling the truths of one another as our own • our bodies understood to well what we saw mirrored in the scars of each others skin • In April • I forgot her birthday while writing you a letter on steel strings • its notes melted through cedar and rosewood • when I read it to you by the water • I knew there was no going back • it was only a few nights later when we played our songs together • walked through city streets • climbed and conquered steel monsters • drank smooth gold from the same glass • til we found our way back to your kitchen table • We perched upon it and talked beneath a vanilla blanket • a candle flickering shadows of our hands caressing hearts hammering epileptic • I stepped over five years of my first love • with a bag of knives I landed in your hands • you caressed fingertips till fingertips found lips and they were around me • a fountain of light • whispering earthquakes • shaking off our clothes • • I’ll never forget how soft your skin was that first touch •