"sweat in the eyes and hope in the heart"

"sweat in the eyes and hope in the heart"
written after good news for a bag of dirty bones by jake kilroy.

in your bedroom, i could taste the starlight abound,
washing it down with sweat, as we stretched ourselves thin,
letting our memories drift out of our pores to sparkle above.

we ate the past off paper moons.
we plucked the stars like fruit.
we reread pages from old notebooks,
because we wanted to know what we didn't know once.

this has been an endless lunar cycle,
passing through the glowing of your body,
bouncing off the curves of your hips,
tickling your thighs and bursting out your toes.

this was christmas breath coughing at the end of summer,
a barely audible hope cascading from the nerve-endings,
brilliant in each silent skip, gleefully swinging an ax.

all our hearts wanted was a new spinal path to trample
with ecstasy and prowess and cautionary breadcrumbs.

spirits coming out of the muscle forests,
these shredded ambitions are yours.
my heart has always been a drunken hunter.
your bones are thrift store weathered.
we're the mailboxes americans only buy for nostalgia.
lucky charms swing in our eyes,
and we are nothing without a joke.