The transfer of jewels from one mouth
to another
can happen over seasons.
Through the dissipation of free will,
eye powers are corrected

and

selective permeability is developed by tongues.

Invisible germs are better than conspicuous ones.
At least they give you the privilege of solitude.
And lessons subtle enough to be muttered in invectives in sleep
when there is no one else

on the bed.

You try to make sense of how you
understood most things as a boy
until you saw your mother cry.
In the kitchen, a crusader on her knees,
the stove burning in prolonged desire.
You looked around for onions
but there were none.

You could stand naked in front of a mirror
all day and still not see yourself

the way you want to.
Because the skin can only do so much.

Through the labour of a thousand well breathed sighs
maybe you will earn someday
the scrub of a granite love –
the serum of constructive agony
to peel off fossilized enamel and reveal the texture
of your tissues.

And you will do well
to remember that the
labour is not in the sighing,
it is in the believing.