I remember so clearly the beginning. The way his eyes felt. How that first time--he kissed the freckle as he calls it, on my left eyelid.

He was so tender, so tender.

My shiny organs beam stupidly in their dark recesses, doe-eyed & naive. No one tends to them, but they do not grow hard and shard. They dehydrate, ungasp for life.

The worm squirming in the concrete during rain season is taut with its life, taut with its life.