fleurs du papier

if i could paint you, i would use all the colours of carnations
the angry slashes of red on a golden morning sky
the sun that sets in the caribbean sea

i would take the stars, draw them in your eyes
in the tip of your tongue
i would stitch your name upon the waves
create monuments of sand, and salt, and words

i would map the constellations on your skin
draw the way from your heart to mine,
throw away the compass

i hold your memory in the palm of my hand,
and you, somewhere between my fingers

i carry your smile in the inseam of my cheek,
a kiss hidden in that place between the darkest point of night and the sounds of our alarms
an i love you, somewhere between kissing you and dreaming i do

if i could paint your smile
the colour of winter come
i would kiss my summers on the tip of your nose
taste spring in the rose of your cheeks

loving you is not a seasonal event
every day i fall, get up,

fall again, harder

but there is no autumn,

no prelude to the cold

it will hit once you are gone