Nine Loves

The first woman I ever loved was hot pink and brown

Hot pink ‘cause she was loud and sickly sweet

Brown cause she wore boys clothes and her hair was south of Texas

The first boy I ever loved was the rich warm glow of adobe

Sweet cinnamon in coffee; an affectionate smell from his skinny armpit

The first young girl I ever loved was tar black and blood red

Ripped emo mall t shirts with cheap corsets in noir

(And blood red cause of, you know..)

The second boy I ever loved was yellow and green

Yellow ‘cause of his straw flop that crept above a mole on his neck

Green, a bony pine tree inside his head; he didn’t know I existed

Violet, the second girl I ever loved, sang terribly

I wanted to run my fingers through her hair and hold her sad eyes in my lap

His eyes were too electric, he wrote sappy poetry just like this

Rivers poured out of his mouth and everyone around bathed in them

Then there was a maroon boy who liked to eat mangos and talk Sadhguru

His body bended like a bonsai tree, he had a fickle dick

My eighth love, a boy who at first appeared a man

He was a chameleon, he wore my colors till they cracked off and I was broken

That’s how I learned to see the jungle in me

How all the colors of everyone I ever loved played and squirmed and danced in my body

Hot pink, jade green, warm brown, melted yellow, silent maroon, sharp black

It was time for a pilgrimage, to explore my own silent forests, electric waters, dense jungles

I am my ninth love.