Adam’s Love Poem

you say you want romance

I say I want a religion. more rush

than simmons with all of your red roses—

dip them in honey for the sweet rich eve-

nings filled with my curves—I’m bad at this.

Do you know I hold you with my lungs?

you know, just crisp ice & mud. stable

me more than an all time high, just sky, I knew

what a man was supposed to look like.

I knew a woman too

tall in her shaggy life of dogsweat & humans.

tired in the brain & a highway in the heart

you just learn to walk with your body

against all lonely hotelstays

& music days—I was lost for him. Adam

I call out your name in hebrew. atom

you’re perfect in a sparkle, gentle in a funk.

add em, muslimah—

though I tend alone. give me your hand,

it’s not a headache..just

love stuck, love lust

open my chest of diamonds

free yourself

in the ring of my smile, collect. baby oh collect

off me. diamond teeth. fast cars & custom gowns—

I’m the lady of your arms. I want shades

more tint than black, hiding all your secrets

that a soft face couldn’t hold,

doing geometry with uh fade /

eyes welling like black tea

& you can never unlove me. you’ve loved

a woman before

so you know where we die. right at the core,

the ripping of an ab, a trade, a kiss. you know

how roses heal the soul & soften

the breast caved in & safe for this lifetime.

you know

silk tops show the wind

your breeze. you know

the importance in textile.

you know that a pyramid is only grand

in a desert

otherwise it blends in with the city. you know

me.

so dress me up in water

rub my arms up

stream. give me those roses

you been talkin about &

look me in the eye sometime.

if you owe debts

let it be

to a woman you’ve never loved. give it to her

like a get out of jail free card. & this time

you study.

too many commands

too little to give

yet sparkling in the sand—