Hybrids

1.

you taught the bone-sparrow love
how then to feel its fragile neck crack

a thousand splinters etch a breath
& is cooled; a gentle swathing






2.

before reduced to erratic, the confines
of the palms in tremor



each time

you mention the warmth

of the sea spray on your thigh
your spine arched back to envelope the sun

I grow dizzy wonderment
in my gut, where you reside

here, there

all-encompassing
& warm







3.

I mistakenly place the rose bud
in a cup of brine & sweat & our secreted

lust


hoping it would grow, if just, if not
the thought of us wilts & withers

into the ocean's
temporal clutch





4.

& before us
a bird shall break into chorus
as if the last swallow of tune
would be enough to resurrect us

through dirge


the muted codas
of our beating hearts