parallel (italy)

northern italy, 1980s. i unhinged my torso

between afternoon's sun and the grass field

i used to think would bury me

with white roses & your last name on the tomb

in my head our summers are next to right now:

you placed a strawberry between your lips

soft, sour fruit slumped down my bare throat

the one now scorched with acrylic scars

northern italy, 1980s. i no longer recall

how many summers i had been drunk on you

we were hellfires with oxygen-filled lungs

and your touch always felt like the first

our initials on that apple tree, withered.

i dig into my mind until my fingers bleed

for traces of a forgone lifetime, heaven

in your perfume, sins tasting like lipstick

northern italy, 1980s. some years later

i'd wake up in an empty bed, you next to him

polaroids locked, you no longer remember

august night, beneath your body. onwards-

i taste blood instead of strawberries

our apple tree torn down for the better. but

i don't regret the summers wasted next to you

& never the years of melancholy that followed

- deathetix