I imagine your honeycomb / lip balm lingering between the spaces / of my words / my chipped / sentences my declarations of clarity / and I thought fragmentation of the self / meant digestible / meant easy to handle but / staying with a sweet talker / I had to dissect / your appetite
for good marrow your / impatience with the discoloring / of an unripened polaroid / I chipped
a plate trying to put it in the cupboard /
like an unfinished psalm /
the distance between / the palm and the forearm is the bridge / you kissed the first night I made us / chocolate cake my wrist / I cannot stop rubbing the blemish / of your lips a malted tattoo /
I wonder when I pull / out the poem I wrote to you / and recite its final words / I, too, blur /
if they come to fruition / if they chisel away / this marbled image of you / until nothing
Michael Beard (he/him) currently studies poetry at the Bowling Green State University MFA program. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Mantle Poetry, Thin Air Magazine, Oakland Arts Review, and the 2021 Southern Literary Festival Anthology, among other places.