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My perfect Red, in tooth and claw

How you grow so unlike yourself

Into every vine I once defended

Into places I leave now unprotected

Unburned letters and words in aftertaste

Uncertain with the quivering of my pen

I am weak with your words

Lovingly exhausted with our thoughts

My most insidious Blue

How you seep from the branches of time

Crystalline into every thread

Weaving inside—a wanting braid

My Careful Cardinal—to be so close

With knives at our necks

A line of red into the hollow of my throat

Is still to be so close to you

Dearest Lapis, eager with hunger

Unburned letters and words in aftertaste

Uncertain with the quivering of my lips

What words of yours linger unwritten

My Red sky at morning’s dawn

Do not shorten your words to me

I am weak with your words

Lovingly exhausted with our thoughts

Dear Red

I leave myself undefended

Dear Blue

I leave myself unprotected

I leave myself for you