(scribbled on unlined paper in a hotel room)

         It was just as if Erato herself
burst  forth  from this  beating heart
to tug tightly  by  papillary muscles
all  of  my  worn
                        chordae tendineae

—shooting blood past tricuspid 

&blood past the mitral valves— 

she knocked breath from these lungs to shoot
up past my throat, without skipping my voice-

box,   just to tickle my tongue while my teeth
felt  vibrations  from the  rest  of my  skeleton
like she'd plucked at her  lyre's strings  from a
throne  atop my spine  but  my lips  could not
react fast enough  to the tumultuous anatomy
within this heart before my brain caught her spell on the tips of my lips and—

I almost said I love you.

but i              

(& Melpomene: we)

                                     know better.