you feel like sunburn

the spots atop my skin where the sun escaped and crawled beneath my sinews, made a nest beneath my coverings, settled there

      warmer than the rest of me.

you feel like sand

yielding beneath me

hot feather-down mattress

you conform to my contours, a lick against the curve,

golden damp and strung with seaweed

     sticking in the creviced webs between my fingers.

you feel like waves

steamed latte foam

so fine the surface looks like velvet shining

and breaking

a cyan no one can see without squinting.

saltwater, tears and sweat:

a holy trinity to quench any thirst as

wet thunder paints the lips of the cliffs -

     mine to ride against the wind.