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I love you better than
that girl and her orphan

boy at the railing
of the paddle boat, steam

and straw hats and dickies
a shower of rice push

through my skin thin fabric
you pull out in the places

and plumb the drifts
down the coast I bend

down the blade where
you whispered is so sharp

it burns my neck skin on
my body all upset Saul

spectral saliva on my lips
gasping I kiss your open

blood bliss you’ve
just gone numb