once in a blue moon
he measures her wrist bones
with his fingers,
digs between her vertebrae
for the place where her heart sings.
he used to take her down to the river
every night to watch the stars,
and drew the curve of her body
with charcoal on his sketchpad.
she wants to be his muse,
the only one he looks at.
when he touches her skin
he fades into every atom
and dissolves in the dust of her being.
they lie beneath the cherry trees
and wait for winter to come.