It's not easy to tell you this
So I use my hands to shape the words for me
My fingers have become winged messengers of song
My tongue riverdances in the groove of yr belly-button
It is not easy to open myself
So I choose to open you
Stretch you out like a bow
And bleed merengues from way deep down inside you
Places you thought no longer existed
When you began this journey to Adulthood
It's not easy to tell you this
So my breath, my lips transport you
To corrugated tin roofs
Skinned knees and stolen mangoes
The fruit was always sweeter when you suffered for it
To bluebottles dive-bombing noizzZily
To red-tailed lizards hypnotised by the sun
I reduce the man in you to the boy
Who was not afraid that flinging his arms wide
To touch each end of the world
and d-a-n-c-ing
Would lead to questions about his sexuality-
Who could quicken his mother's heart
Just by watching her at work in her kitchen
It's not easy to tell you this
So I wrap the words inside my palms
And knead them into your yielding flesh
Slick with sweat and tears of wild abandon-
Throwing stones into Mr. Paul's backyard
Hiding in doorways
Tearing home as fast as you could before yr full name
Escaped the tightly curled lips of yr father
I lick the salt from yr neck
And bury my fingers in the tangled mass of yr hair
That I am only allowed to touch in this moment
Where memories of yr youth
Replay themselves on the backs of transparent eyelids
To a soundtrack of my name…
It's not easy to tell you this
So I pull you into my body and let you escape
Return to yr innocence
Become the man-child
That traded his sister's conrfirmation bracelet
For two sticks of gum and a metal sharpener…
And during those boyish exploits
I pray you meet the girl who is not afraid to show you
The colour of her love
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