to be a sweet young thing is to be a book ordered from the shelf
come down here, embarrass me by your load

tell the librarians you were sick and needed help to carry your books
tell the librarians to make sure they demagnetize the books

I allow myself to frown under the weight of the words
my fortress of shelves is weighed down with frontlines of you

opening lines, drawn articles, the drowsy poems are what
what are they doing on your lawn, wetting the weeds

their milky rink, their wet and color, their slickslipstream
of waterborneelement are singing my love for you

aren't we all in love and forgetting it
I weight the shelves with magnets, color wheels

chocolate-brown steps, the library I hid my books in
because I hadn't time to check them out, I hadn't time to arm

myself against the storm, when others buy sopping bread
I suck sweetened condensed milk from your pages, your non-

orgasm so sweet as I do