i collapse into you the way rome fell, she says, the ditches dug into my back proof. she could never stand on her own two feet and i could never sleep alone. we’d kiss with tongues wrapped in oceans cause our hearts never nourished land. and when she showered her skin would bleat favors my fingers failed to repay. snuff me, snuff me and while i may have gathered blankets i lacked strength to put her out. you are the forest and i the flash, she says and says it so slow, as though she can already smell the dead things i am hiding.