Tender Is A Word I Hold For You Poem by Heaven Fay

tender is a word i hold for you. it is a pebble small enough to have fit between your childhood gap-teeth. a whole riverbed of these. storm clouds heavy with blackberry seed. fog that turns our fluttering eyelids amaranth. i almost-love you. i am falling off the bone. it is such a smooth happening. a stone softened by one hundred high tides like it is the moon's swelling chest. i cannot stop catching my breath. i have a dream where we plant sugar tree in my tummy and i drink lake water for thirty-seven weeks. you say you are afraid of all the sweet. i say sugar is all i will ever need. for your nape there must only be alabaster, candied, tender, tender, tender things.