you are made of glass, lit with fireflies and
firemen and fireflowers. i can see the heat
tremble like smoke to the black sky as you
tap on your jaw.

pearls slide to the cherry pits of your stomach,
tickled with daisies and ipecac syrup to
gut you like an oyster.
hollow boy, save the glow caught between
your transient, transparent bones- i can see
the snakes in your stomach writhing, pulled
taut and shelled like intestines, wrought like
a chain necklace about your throat.

you are gauze-between-
my-fingers-and-gauze-between-my-fingers,
and-gauze-between-my-fingers, and-gauze-
oh, like a butterfly locked inside its chrysalis,
oh, with cotton wings sticking as they become
viscous in the water, oh, the death of something
beautiful, more beautiful than you.