nervous laughter.

[onthe97thfloor]

when i see you
words become color
numbers become emotions
i am yellow
and the streets are mauve
and the way i am breathing
is nothing but the speckles of blue
the soft rain of green
tapping upon my teeth like
waves
salt and sea
and my veins are counting up to ten
while each cell splits into
two

and the air smells sweet
with the humming songs of engines
and the soft swish of the
batting eyelashes
batting wings
and time falling in and out
with arms raised
music crescendoing and the
audience rising to their feet
to
to
catch the drippings of
the crystallized sugar
the air is sweet
rich with sweet sticky blood
wet with sweet hot words
wrapping about our shoulders like
lava
and we are tempted
to open our mouths
and let the cavern of our throats
accept the air
in gulps
swallowing rainclouds and bird feathers
tasting nothing but chocolate

and gravity is lost
rocks encircling your elbows
that jut out from your body like
branches
butterfly wings
our bones are pressing up against
the cloth of skin
lining our sighs like maps
we are rocky and mountainous
tight like drums
tympanis we are ringing
we are pinned
to the moment
needles sliding
into my wells and caves
locking each joint into their position
until i am poised
straight
rigid and unyielding

and what was once stillness
becomes snow
i am lost in the white
slope of your neck

and the world is swelling
noise is crawling into each opening

and my body is shouting with
alarms, brakes, ambulances, wind
and i am drowning in punctuation
gurgling up my tongue and bits of fur
between i i i's and excuse me's
nerves are synapsing
vampires are biting me
alive.

and everything that rises to the surface
is what i want to give to you
but i crumble and we spill
and what was once stillness
becomes snow

when i see you.

c