prometheus' daughter

you inhaled heat
as i crossed my legs
and watched ruin arise
from smoldering ash.

eyelashes bat easily,
scaring moths from the fabric
of your lungs, keeping me
from looking up.

in the cold i noticed my knees,
crooked in the shadow of skirts
and sisters.

my blind hands, small and scared
can't make fire from sandpaper,

still shaken from the echo of locks
down empty hallways,

still bent to the angles of elbow
and hip, your jawbone's downward turn.

a lit match mirrors the spark in your lips,
held silently, kissing the frayed edge of leaves
spread unapologetic on the pavement.