an explanation

"an explanation"

i give into the vice of waiting. tonight
i've spent an hour tracing your handwriting as
a means

to take you in.
to feel you wholly.

your intricate lines act as narrators' twists stamped
into the forefront of my mind. each
perfectly executed sentence erases the last.

it is graceful the way your words commit to paper
the way we commit under old blankets & down pillows.

the moments where i breathe in your warm scent,
the place where your head rests in the crook of my arm.

& when you trace your fingers over my skin i imagine
you carefully writing words on my skin
as though i were a new draft on notebook paper.

i find myself grateful:
to understand
your words &
your vocabulary
is to experience intimate moments.