You say my name the way a child holds a shotgun. We race like stray dogs in the rain. When I want something, I feel it in my teeth. Bone buzzing, a bee sting woman dripping down my chest. You believe you’re earnest. You believe belief itself is a pair of wings. I made an altar of old receipts, I made every day a rapture. And what if sleep does not mean rest, but instead a hiss in the cracked night? An eggshell dream, a cruel mirror? We were shivering. The romance of rain wilted the heavier our clothes got, draped over us like sad circus tents. Good stories are our vice; we want icebreaking scars. How much until you reach for warm clothes? Luxurious time, use your body like a party trick. Havoc has not held my hand so kindly, my body spares me naught. You reckon over and over, run it dry and flood again. This wisdom is wasted on a graceless woman; I want more. Desire, unending, chirping like a sparrow, like a dying smoke alarm.