Ivory Oceans

I understand.
Opening up to me
Is like opening the door
To a secret room.
.
Anything could be hiding.
Something might be lurking
Somewhere in the shadows,
Anxiously waiting to devour anything good,
And you’ll do.
.
I have never been to the home where you grew up.
I have to imagine the staircase

And you as a child,
Thrown down like a rag doll.

.

Are you still stuck drinking water from a murky creek
While your mamma suckles boxed wine like a Capri-sun?

How can I wrap my mind around you

and grab you out of that moment when you were so thirsty?
.
History is an okay teacher,

But pain is a better one.

Your eyes match mine.

They are hazel

And change according to what you wear.

.
We lie beneath faded stars,
And discuss the distance between life and death.

Your breath feels warm against the skin on my neck,

But your hands are frozen.

They cling to a glacier just below your surface,

While ivory oceans confess your innocence.

Written by Erin Elizabeth Cloar July 2006