νόστος (homecoming)

i. leimakid
i am bound by love
to the glistening ghosts
of the trembling leaves.
beneath my skin, a fragile bud
of hope makes a weak nest
for itself of broken branches,
of dappled moss,
of fear

feebly beating
its downy wings: & only
once per hour now does envy
make my heart
sk  ip a b eat

ii. pasiphaë
i study how the hourglass
stretches out across her back;
i watch her switch of slendered calves
illuminate her brindled halves.

i know her storming scorn still
scorches me --
she's cold & haughty,
sun-dripped, tau(gh)t & free.

the sheen of ichor glosses
dimly the flicker of her
holy marrow - i see the throb of her
achilles aching to snap from her skin -
she's a delicate
doe, so sleek, so
thin -

iii. selene
i felt my world shift with
the swift grip of your square jaw,
locked & rounded in the broad paw
of your palm. &
now i know

there are breaths
better kept
swallowed.

we watch
a death, a shocker of a dream,
& spin it several shades
of subtle green. &
now i know

that your paths
are duly
followed.

i left the scent
of your hierarchy
tucked neatly
in the forest of my hair,
& now when the wind
roars through it
i feel at home again. &
now i know

that the thick of
the fright i've been feeling
is hollowed.

there is such beauty
in the way soft words
leap from your tongue
like birds, in the colored click
of bright spring glass in
your fingers as serenity
wreathes through the veins
of the perseas,

in the sunshine
of your voice,
in the splash of light
that floods through
the open window,

in the knowing shapes
of our half-smiles
as the golden lights crunch
to dust below your hands.