shall you zip your coat
up to your neck, strip
down to quivering
stretch-marked skin, cower
under roofs of stone
and concrete until
i pass over you?
my lone eye is made
of freezing fire,
fixed always above
you. even if i
could tell whether it
would warm or chill the
coming day, i would
keep this from you, thing
of spite that i am.
oh, i am hard to
embrace, i know, for
i burn fingertips
and break firmaments,
but you try all the
same, and i take from
you whatever flesh
my molars can crack,
for that is the curse
handed down to me
as punishment for
sins i never saw:
to float around you
in ellipse and steal
away as much of
your light as i can
carry while never
getting close enough
to touch your surface,
to swim just under
the water and be
seen by you for a
brief moment during
gatherings below
the boardwalk but not
held in your head for
any longer than
a grain of white sand
fluttering by on
a gentle sea breeze,
to eat and never
be satiated.