Checking My Pulse

Your face crept

into that space

between my reflex and my resolve

kinda like the crevice you don't notice

til it takes down the damn wall.

and now we are sitting in the window

your forehead is red-hot and touching my knee

and I am checking my pulse,

making sure it hasn't quit on me.

and I'm sorry if you're thinking that I knew

what I was doing

I guess what I do best is look like I am in control

but tonight, tonight, I am a soft and untamed thing

and I will wrap my breath around you til your exhale comes clean.

I am checking my pulse

I am checking my pulse.

you are the buried penny at the bottom of the pool

so I guess that makes me the fool diving deep for you

I'll stick you in my pocket

all shiny, all precious, and all not mine

a hidden, forbidden treasure

baby, you're the worst kind.

cause underneath the surface, all things loom larger

so I'm searching for your edges

to fish you up, ship you up out of the water

and you are that sweet wish that she's thrown

I would have caught you in the air, girl, had I known.

and now the space between these bodies

surpasses the sum of its parts

so I am crawling in-between these moments

balancing words hoping I don't get stuck.

and I was just thinking 'distraction'

now I'm thinking distraction's a relative thing

cause I was casually splashing

and now I'm a casualty slowly sinking.

cause in hot water, my brain just kinda puckers up

and I'm drowning jaws wide open now cause my mouth

it just won't seem to shut.

and you might just be a shiny thing

but you are the shiny thing I am pursuing

and when I said "you talk too much"

it was cause there was stuff I'd rather you'd have been doing.

and then you take my breath

I say "hey, I need that to get back to the top"

"but we're beautiful down here", you say

"you know, girl

the world won't stop".

and we are sitting in the window

your forehead is red-hot and touching my knee

and I am checking my pulse

making sure it hasn't quit on me.

I am just checking my pulse

making sure it hasn't quit on me

I am just checking my pulse

making sure she hasn't quit on me

yet.