Burning Tracks

Fireworks skittered

across the sky

like spiders

of flame and rain -

their shots ringing out,

like the first time

you said my name

my name and those words

a pattern of sound

sewn in broken seams

by the needle of your tongue

like fireworks

crawling across the sky

burning tracks in the tough skin

of night air

those words and a phrasing

I've learned to love

though I jumped the first time

I heard it, the first time

I felt you burning

You said you needed

me the first time

We mixed sweat and tears

I remembered my daddy

holding my ears tight

in the cab of his pick-up

Independence Day

with the windows rolled up

it was ninety degrees

we were trapped

in the parking lot

the family in back

pointing at spiders

flailing their fiery legs

in the sky

and I cried

and I pressed his hands

on my ears

hold me tighter

I said, I can hear them

and he did

and you did

and the fireworks kept

flashing

and the noises kept

coming

and you held me

and I heard you

I still heard you....