Before I put my jeans on
And join the world again,
I will leave you hickeys
Where they won't see,
I will kiss you in places
Only God knows about.
The places he never
Wanted me to touch
Will become my garden.
We don't need him to bare fruit
When we have my arms
And your lips.
The grass is just as good here
As is it was in that garden.
I will reap the harvest from your hips,
I will make us fed
With the body and the blood of
Our freedom.
Never you worry.
You are worth my sin,
You are worth my will.
The weight of my body,
The pain in my spine,
The yellow in my teeth.
Dancing below heaven
In the dead grass
Because nothing is barren
Where you stand
& I kneel.
Michael Emery Budd is a queer poet & actor living in Los Angeles & raised in Sacramento suburbia. You can find more of his work in Z-Publishing's California's Best Emerging Poets 2020 Edition.
He hopes when people look at his work, they can find that specific feeling they had to express but couldn't find the words.