NEPTUNE BURNS

in my veins

I have sketched starry night across my forearms for years it seems - taken blood diamonds in crystallization and cut their edges on teeth / I've engulfed the patchwork of blue dashed skies through needlework spun by cobalt hued sapphires - kissed wide awake the sun of topaz with the mouth of an all consuming black hole in the shape of a lover's moan / sprinkled brown bones and shadowed trees in diluted shades of chestnut  taupe  dead green - haloed the moon with open mouth orange blossoms splayed in starlight coated bleached sepia silver / & pressed myself along white billowy bedsheets masquerading as empty pallid canvases - tinted our skin in red ink blamed it on the black lipstick and hovered over you with saturated sugar dipped fingers / my oh my did I make a masterpiece on my arms - splattered it in white sweat and convulsed as you saw my handiwork of the sky painted in sliced skin / a need to be beautiful overflowing into coarse severed veins till they reach your fingertips - I would have gladly painted the Sistine chapel along my spine with the angels looking not to god or the heavens but to my spine for it has collapsed but stands / I would engulf a world with its blurred crops and lined circles - if only to print myself into your being so that when we are gone & someone finds your bones they will see me in you / they will see I have spent a millennia sketching us into art - they will spend an eon wondering why I tried to perfect a boy who loved me more than Van Gogh did the freckled sky of mortal stars

For vangohs you are a brilliant star and you deserve the love of a million galaxies