to protect from the sun
oh god. how she manipulates. how she keeps me coming back to her.
a molten wonder with abraded tongue. scrapes the bridge of noses and shaves the bow of cheekbones. a paleness that lights grass fields at angles magnified, scorches them as flame set to sheet linen. pliant, clumsily dotting eyes, she is featureless, and of this she complains. seizes days by the handful, cradles months in between rays. she unzips her flight jacket to a solar cavity heaving smoke. a non-violent yet innate hinge to time. her memories impress into skin, leave shoulders and arms flecked with this ruin.
i grow thicker skin, i keep within the shade, i perceive her with filters at every opportunity. but whence arises the risk of no longer being missed, the biggest star again sneaks along these of my oft-deserted rifts. thaws the broken need in me. asserts that burning is what i do. not for her, for me.