A Love Language

Is a list of those forgotten 

Pressed beneath a tongue, the paper 

Soaked until the words remember to run 

Into the back of the throat, ringing the bell 

Of the uvula on the way down, coating 

The esophagus with music until the stomach sings 

A digestion dirge that marinates memory back 

To the swallowed taste. Today it is a mix of bird wing 

And burial. Your name finds a final resting place on my lips 

That murmurs and hums on the fireflies’ wings. I mourn you

Each time the crickets’ legs creak out the sounds of violin 

And the floorboards at night. I feel your absence in that darkness 

’Til the mouth cracks to show teeth gleaming in the twilight, 

Bones gripping confessional-tongue like starlight. 

The glow says I love you while the dusk relieves 

The sigh left unreleased.