[nothing left to remember]

red, white into the water
gliding gently away from the hill
past the moss beds and cypress knees,
under the fallen branches
where the insect kingdom reigns

the petals sinking, swirling in the current,
rolling over the rapids like
your hand on my thigh,
the soft whispering of the water
couldn't be less than everything

it should be easy to abandon pain,
but the kind of heart love takes
must be like the cherry blossoms
bowing down to the lake after dusk;
the way a robe cascades off at day's end.

and still, tucked against my skin
and stayed with sweat, worn corners
over coarse lips like ragdoll eyes
weeping with age: am i just this puppet
dangling from bitter strings?

her arms reach toward the ground as
a child to its mother, desperate for
relief. and though her step is
rarely wrong, the eyes betray her often:
such are the worries that plague her

even as Nobu* brooded, he closes
down inside the cave. spilling under the doorway,
the sound of a thousand drones in mourning
laces its fingers in my dreams so that the morning
is never easy

unless i wake up next to
the way your breath warms the back of my neck
and your hands, but i'm holding back the way
i want to love you, press my body against your crevices
so there's nothing left to remember



*read _memoirs of a geisha_