Monday, September 3, 2018

Pressure Points

He names the muscles in your back
While he presses down on them

This is this one
This is that one

One by one
Knots
Rock away

The cat in the corner
Doesn’t seem interested
In the naked boy
Who just got laid
And followed it up
With a lame grin
And a request

Shoulders shrug
Flip on your stomach
See if you can catch the view
From the window that faces
The skyline
And the cathedral

The boy with the lean frame
And the long arms
And the strong hands
Hops on your back
And counts down
The vertebrae
In your spine

This is this bone
This is that one

He touches a spot
And it’s warm
Then cold

The parts that are tense
Go loose
And other parts of you
Erase
Before you even knew
They were there

This is the kind of apartment
That should have a fireplace
But doesn’t

This is the kind of man
Who shouldn’t have a care in the world
But holds the world on his back
While he sits on yours
And makes your problems
Rock away

There’s another cat you never see
And a shelf full of books
That look like
They’ve been read
Too many times

Everything about him
Is the difference between you
And the man
You’d like to be

His furniture looks vintage
And museum-ready

His hair falls in his face
But you can always
See his eyes

His voice could put you to sleep
If you weren’t so interested
In what he was going
To say next

What parts of you
He was going to name

He tells you about his sobriety
Like it’s a nickname
He had in school

You think about staying over
But you have work in the morning
And a fear of waking up
Not knowing where you are

Back home
There’s a washing machine
Next to your bed
And no cats
To lovingly judge you

Back home your bed
Is a bunch of blankets balled up
And a flattened pillow
And nobody who loves you enough
To get your knots out

This guy isn’t perfect
But he’s the first person
To solve something for you
Instead of giving you two new problems
To take care of
By lunchtime

It’s half past three
And you’re acting like
It’s four in the afternoon

You don’t feel tired
You don’t feel scared
You don’t feel the relief that comes
From having a beautiful person
Dig their hands into you
Like they’re trying
To sculpt you
Into somebody new

All you feel is that wanting
That wanting
To be changed

To be set
And fired
Into
Somebody else

And the dig--

Dig
Dig

That never
Turns up

Anything

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