Vertigo 

By Jasmine Brown

Palm cupped around the nape of your neck 

I don’t want to breathe in this moment 

Tough lips  

in soft teeth 

I don’t want to breathe it out. 

Spiral staircases give me vertigo  

spinning around our house in lip synced circles. 

Nothing will be remembered  

once the first grace of gold balances along the blades, 

so drink the vineyard grapes – sour as this season’s are –  

and let bare feet turn over the cracks in our tiles.   

You can’t escape the charms  

in this house, the tones  

– yours and mine –  

humming off a buzz,  

ignoring the hazy possibility  

of dawn. 

Hands are sexy, I’ve told you so before; 

yours shatter porcelain into stars  

while I watch – rings resting in something sturdier  

on the cabinet.  

Palm cupped around the nape of your neck, 

I don’t want to breathe this moment in 

Tough lips  

in soft teeth, 

I don’t want to breathe it out. 

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