sugarcane

for the man who can't seem to understand that my greatest expression of love is in his mirror
for the man who can't fathom that real love is so rare, it seems like a cubic zirconia in the company of diamonds
for the him who never noticed that 'man' was embedded in 'woman' long before we met and since meeting, it's more than accurate
for the him that believes in showing love before admitting you've found it
this is my compromise





the sun breathed down my neck 
had me sweating maple syrup from my pores
i palmed your heart as it beat its pulse into the lines that made my fingerprints
so everything i touched, i gave life to
making everything so precious, so fragile that i placed bones over that heart not to bury it but to protect it
i made ribs out of you
i sawed
and i clawed
until the dust from the shape of your soul piled up next to me
and i called them ashes as your spirit took flight into the wind
i made smoke out of you
swirling smoke
that signaled that somewhere i was burning inside
as the sun breathed down my neck
had me sweating maple syrup from my pores
you called me sweet
and made sugar out of me so good i had to taste it right off your lips
that's why we kiss
i made love out of you
i made love out of you
i walked for miles on that love
my pedicure begged me to stop, to slow down, to catch a ride even
but i walked for miles determined to bring you home 
i dug you out of the ground where she buried you
where she left you under a tombstone like death had become acquaintances with your voice
i made sound out of you
moaning, skin slapping, hands clapping
even tears spoke with the sound i made from your soul
i took my time and i molded you out of gratitude, out of compassion, out of a sex so good i even told my mother about it
i sculpted you into broad shoulders and piercing eyes
a curved spine and perfect teeth
i built you with the very hands that she buried you with 
i dug into the dirt not to find you but to lay there with you until you found a way to borrow my heartbeat and make. your. own. heart. beat.
i breathed my life into you
i let you climb on top of me in that dirt, in that earth
and let you spin and rotate your axis into my universe
i made planets from your sperm
children of the sky that all revolve around you
look like you
smell like you
that look to you from wherever they are just to make sure that you're still moving
you are the son of my craft
but i am the sun of your life
and while everyone thinks you are just a revolving planet that uses my light to make your own eyes sparkle
i know better because you are my star to a woman whose never known a dark night with you
i bleed you
i made wounds out of you
dark, bruised wounds where tragedies can only tell stories
and salt is only a condiment
i made history out of you
with a name so legendary that the presence cannot possess it
now you tower over me like pyramids in egypt
shaking your bricks under your maker 
sweating under your skin while the whole world comes to stare at you because they don't know how you got here
i built 'here' for you
laid the land flat so you could grow from it
made rain out of my tears so you could drink it
made milk from my breasts just for you to know that your children would never grow hungry
i made life out of you
pulses from our throbbing
breath from our touch
heartbeats from the beat of your heart on top of mine
i made life out of you
precious
beautiful 
life out of you
the sun breathed down my neck
had me sweating maple syrup from my pores
i fed our babies that sugar and named them cane
how sweet it is.