Dream holds affection tight between its hands.

Translates tenderness to a rough cut.

A rough cut that leaves prints on skin.

Each place you have touched enters my sleep.

What attachment were you dreaming in my sleep?

There is a heartbeat underneath all dreaming.

Some heartbeats become symphonies that bleed.

Some insistent symphonies bleed percussion.

How does percussion affect the wood block?

How many beats does it take to retract sound?

Rough waters retract affection.

I would swim into your dream to retrieve touch.

Touch in familiar distance retrieves the dream.

Dream holds affection tight between its hands.

*Gratitude to Jericho Brown, who invented the duplex form