skinny boy

sinuous body

feeling your hips

with your long slender fingers

following the curve of your bones

mini overland mountains of maleness

your belly a soft valley of curly dark hairs

legs stretching out to the end of the sun lounger

endless hot desert highways disappearing into the horizon

 

mesas and buttes hazy under blue skies

soaking up the heat like Joshua trees

rooted in memories scattered upon this overridden land

the tall cactus with its arms outstretched waving

a body full of life-giving liquids stored inside

the shimmering sands beneath late afternoon sleaze

motel vacancy signs flickering to the passing traffic

enticing and inviting you to come in and try

their air-conned bliss

 

your heartbeat pulsing beside the glistening pool

running your blood-red painted fingernail along the ridge of his leg

his eagle image soaring across your reflective glasses

great convoys of trucks stirring dust into devil columns

they dance this weird dance to the other side of the tracks

bulls that were born and bred for bareback riding

you tell him the sky is so much different out here

feels like if you climb up the mountain high enough

you could catch hold of a cloud and float away

 

his burning cigarette ash caught on the still breeze

disintegrating in silence on the surface of the pool

the sunsets will make you feel like the world is on fire

your blood-red painted fingernail tracing the line of scars on his chest

shiny sunrise pink tattoos in marbled whorls of rib-boned glory

but he looks away and sighs with delayed exhaustion

drags nicotine down into his tired lungs

a lazy lacklustre look of annoyance

at losing out on last night’s cash prize

 

 

words ©Colin Hill 2015