another side of paradise

we are thirteen taking baths 

together in a love tub, and i have just shown you my tits. 

i did not want to show them to you, but i did 

anyway. you say four of mine are only 

the right side of yours. later 

that night i crossed my heart 

and hoped to never see you again.

but now we are twenty making out 

on the bathroom sink on the balcony on the couch. 

boys watch us tangle our legs together 

like angel hair twisted into a fork

they munch on us. revel in our taste.

in the toilet your piss was red and you 

did not wash your hands but i let you 

touch my face. we go puff puff boom 

with our cigarettes and i crossed my heart 

and hoped this is not forever.

i wished for Mary but have gotten you 

instead: the snake on the fig tree, camouflaged in

the barks the branches the leaves.

you take me. i let you.

the bible is just poetry for men who are lost,

or have had too much riesling and 

want to lie down together 

on earth on dirt on grass, hoping someone will listen.