champagne butterflies

My heart flutters behind the walls

of my ribs, securely wedged between

the gasping, heaving flesh of

my twin yearning lungs.

My lungs strive and strain,

gulping greedily at every last atom

of oxygen that they can wring.

My ribs protect these fragile parts,

my most vulnerable places, but

even my ribs cannot keep you out.

You are in the air; every atom

is infused with the stardust of

your skin; every breath redolent

with the heat of your eyes.

You are the most potent drug I have

ever known, and I am addicted

to each puff, each draw, each gasp

of breath that draws you

ever deeper into my lungs from

where your powerful narcotic slips

into my bloodstream and follows

the great signs down the highway of my veins

to reach the inner chambers of my heart.

Each new injection of you

sets my heart to fluttering all over

again, until it bursts wide open—

and then all I have is

a dream, an addiction, and

a ribcage full of champagne butterflies.