This Is What You Do To Me

your sun-kissed skin
stretched over ivory bones
creates the most beautiful canvas i have ever known

i print prose with my nails
on the curve of your waist
while honey, hot with sugar, is all i can taste

salt water stings
where my lip and cheek meet
the chocolate is bitter
but the finish is sweet

i drowned in the atlantic
where your eyes stole my lungs
i’m not much for faith,
but the chorus speaks in tongues

smoke sizzles upward
from the rain-battered pavement
they said to dance in it,
but didn’t mention what the wave meant

salted caramel is the shoreline,
your hair the willow trees
and the mists of louisiana
always brought me to my knees.