Inside The Hearts' Walls

Untitled, by Mira Mason-Reader

To touch
And smell-
Hard, finger fumes
Extending up ankle,
Past calf
On soft hills
With small beaten paths.
Air- or breath
Eroding away
Landscape
And hair meant to be kept
Keeping
To tender thoughts
On the balls of my feet.
No road can be too traveled
So, press harder
With your tires in my earth...
And there is no wildlife left
On these tired, tired hills
None to shoo away
The too tender caress
Of gods
Wrath-
But life lives in lips
On lips
That belong to you
And sweet as they are (like sap from sad trees)
They bring both day and night,
Dark and light,
To illuminate
The very phases
Of my grass gone missing, my tire treads
That your hands smooth back
To deep earth....
You look with your mouth, and see
Only things I thought were gone
Like green grass, blue skies,
And I do not question your lies,
I speak to you in smiles and sighs
And drape my landscapes in your skin
For safe keeping,
And possibly,
Restoration.