The dark is cool, she tells me--
the dark is salve.

She drags her lipstick
..........across my chest,
smears the nipples red.

I cradle her breasts,
rock them to sleep.

Together we toss
the sheets out the window,
......drape them over our neighbor's
rending lawn gnomes.

She suffocates my skin
...............with creams and powders,
exchanges my eyelashes and brows.

I wind my hand around
.............the hair that is left
on a loose nail;
tighten its copper filament
until my fingers blush.

My kisses sting, she tells me--
The dark is salve.