Sunburned shins and sunburned backs
His Achilles’ canyon
And my skin freckled with scarlet and ivory oases.
Toasted barnacles pierce our blades
Ignoring the sting
Staring at the blue above us
Knowing the blue below us
Resting on the limbo
Blazing smiles shine against baked faces
And laughter.
Fourteenth day
The first three were silent
Long lost brother
Unexpected friend.
Two months before
Afternoon with my boy
Not my long lost brother
My storybook prince
On a leather bound couch
Like a leather bound storybook
The first three minutes were silent
And we laughed at how tongue-tied we felt.
My heart racing to the beat of his
Hands shaking
Nervous words uttered
Utter anticipation.
Finally tulips brushing
Tickled by grass fertilized with adolescence
His arms wrapping me
Pulling me in
Igniting a light blazing
Smiles shine against cherry faces
Never wanted this moment to end.
Fourteenth day
The first three were silent
Bikini tops and swim trunks
Sticking to the dock
Like those pink marshmallows we ate
As he brushed my hair
As we looked at the stars
As he whispered in my ear
As I missed the one who awaited me at home
My storybook prince
And as he missed his own princess
Back in windy city kingdom.
Inseparable for those twenty-one days
Parting on the last
Enough hugs to leave us with a speck of magnetic charge
But no chemistry
There never was
And we never wanted any.
This is why they are so different.
Long lost brother
Storybook prince.
One quenches the burning of my skin
The other feeds the fire within.
And while I wonder where my brother is
What he’s thinking
How he is.
My storybook prince reins in my cerebral palace
Chi town brother broke my toys
And fixed my cuts
And there’s space for him somewhere
Maybe
But storybook prince has got me hooked
And reeled me in
Surely.
