By midnight
without sleep
I lay my body atop the length of your back
Hard, as the whole of Hill Country…
the smoothest stone I’ve known
Cloistered in a den of rugged fossil
dark evergreen walls hold the comfort of rain
A room of coral envelops like the late light of 7 p.m. in summer…
palomino soft
The glow is visceral
as your molecules turn every color you pass
into their most serene
Your shadow
casts only the tone I need to feel
then
Tejano eyes, light brown as canyon walls
hold a singular, and secret palette
that the world will never know…
that my brushes could never possess…
What they cast upon, at midnight
remains true