The Unsaid
       

Drew his face on a sidewalk,
not with chalk but with

my mouth, my lips moist
against the hot cement

where girls had been playing
hopscotch all afternoon

until they were called in—

street lamps flickering on
in suburbs shielded

from the stars. He taught me
names for constellations

hard to forget—secret
passwords left on my body

the neighbors can't hose off.

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Copyright © 2020 Timothy Liu All rights reserved
from Let It Ride
Saturnalia Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission